DTCC Expands Six Sigma Externally

This year DTCC will begin to extend its quality program externally, seeking opportunities to partner with financial firms to achieve further efficiencies for the industry via Six Sigma and other quality methodologies. Initially, DTCC will work with paying agents that handle the highest volume of structured securities.

“We have deployed Six Sigma methodologies within DTCC since 2001 and realized significant gains in cycle time, accuracy and customer service,” said John Colangelo, DTCC managing director, Operations and Business Reengineering. “Now we want to share our Six Sigma experience with agents, partnering with them to continually improve our mutually related processes.”

To launch this initiative, DTCC will leverage the soon-to-be-released structured securities report card, which shares with agents data on Sigma levels for timeliness and accuracy. These Sigma levels will reflect how the overall process performance is influenced internally by DTCC as well as externally by the agents and their service providers. A Sigma level is the number of defects for a given volume level. The higher the defect rate, the lower the Sigma number.

“Developing Six Sigma partnerships in the industry is a logical extension of the DTCC commitment to continually improve customer service,” said Colangelo. “We expect this initiative to drive further efficiency and quality in DTCC processes, which ultimately benefits the entire industry.” @