11

• Organization Background

– Organization Background : Part of the Zurich based Kuoni Travel Group, VFS Global was established in 2001, in Mumbai India, as a specialist partner for diplomatic missions worldwide. VFS Global serves diplomatic missions by managing all the administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to the entire lifecycle of a visa application process, enabling diplomatic missions to focus on the key tasks of assessment and interview.

– With an employee strength of 4000 (+), as on date, VFS serves diplomatic missions of 35 countries through its 425(+) offices and has operations in 52 countries across 5 continents. and processes in excess of 36 million visa applications (contracted) annually.

• Process Excellence at VFS Global

– Process excellence is at the core of our business; the objectives being to deliver quality and value add to our customers (applicants) and clients (Embassy), improve productivity and ensure consistent performance of processes. It is critical to provide the agreed level of service to our client (UK mission) and not only meet but also exceed clients’ expectations.

– Process Management, Quality Assurance and Process Improvement are the three key components of the process excellence model and Six Sigma is one of the major initiatives contributing to the overall framework in the Organization since March 2008. This framework is supported by a team of over 80 YB (Yellow Belts), 25 GB (Green Belts) and team of 3 Black Belts (BB) comprising of people having relevant Process Excellence experience and certification from various companies .

– A robust governance process, the Business Quality Council (BQC) ensures the prioritization and successful delivery of the identified initiatives.

Introduction

22

Project Charter

Problem Statement

Based on Sep ’10 to Nov ’10 overrides data in Mumbai Visa Application

Center’s (VAC) it was at around 12% on an average which is too high and it

defeats the purpose of Biometrics Enrolment as it becomes a bypass to

Immigration Safety measures. We are targeting overrides below 7% of

fingerprints enrolled.

Scoping

Starts : Applicants come to

enroll fingerprints through

Biometric Enrolment System

at UK Visa Bio-Booth counter

Ends : Once fingerprints are

enrolled.

Out of Scope:

• Biometric Exception and

Exemption cases

• Non-UK VAC in India, UK VAC

other than in Mumbai

• Process not related to Biometrics

Name Role

Jo Parry

(UKBA)

Sponsor

Murali

(Regional Head)

Sponsor

Om Sharma (VP -Process

Excellence)

Sponsor

Hariprasad Black Belt

Biometric Officers –

Mumbai

Team Members

Milestone

Define Dec 13, 2010

Measure Jan 07, 2011

Analyze Jan 25, 2011

Improve Feb 28, 2011

Control May 30, 2011Goal Statement

To decrease Overrides to 7% from the current 12% by Aug’11

Business Case

UK Visa had come up with the process of capturing fingerprints for secure immigrations. This is an extremely critical step as it becomes a bypass

to Immigration Safety measures and failure (override) could result in fraud, terrorist activities and other grave security concerns in UK. By reducing

the overrides it not only does it improve Mission/applicant satisfaction but would result in significant savings to VFS Global due to rework reduction.

D M A I C

Team roles

StakeholdersStakeholders

Jo Parry

Om Sharma

Murali

ResponsibilityResponsibility

Champion ©

Steering Committee

Steering Committee

� Report progress & support initiatives

� Review performance and strategy

� Change Management and Decision on Key Issues

� Resource Allocation Murzban Steering Committee ©

Quality Auditors Members

Prajakta BB - Project Support

Hariprasad BB - Project Manager

Key ResponsibilitiesKey Responsibilities

I

A/I

A/I

A/I

R

M/I/R

M/I/R

� Project Management

� Report progress

� Decision making

RoleRole

� Report gaps� Action Planning

Operations team Members © R

Minal BB - Project Support M/I/R

A R IMApprover Resource Member Interested Party

D M A I C

SIPOCSUPPLIER OUTPUTINPUT PROCESS CUSTOMER

• Applicant

• Submission

counter

• Application

docket

• Applicant

• Biometric

equipment

• Processed

application

• Fingerprint

captured with

specified

quality

• Applicant

• Embassy

UK Visa Applicant

pays fees for the

relevant visa type

Applicant submits

documents at the

Submission

counter

VAC staff checks

forms and

documents for

accuracy

Applicant sent to

Biometric counter

Staff captures

fingerprint of

specified quality

Does the

fingerprint

quality meet the

standard?

Tracked as

Biometric

override

End

N

Y

The overrides is

captured on a piece of

paper by the Biometric

counter staff which is

then consolidated at the

end of day

D M A I C

5

CTQ Drilldown

5

Overrides

Quasi - Continuous

Overrides are the occasion when an attempt has been made to take fingerprint to the standard required, however it fails the system threshold for quality

Average = 7%

0%

8%

Project Y / CTQ

Type of data

OperationalDefinition

Target

USL

LSL

%Unit of Measurement

Defect Definition

taken as the final fingerprints.

System not able to take the predefined fingerprint quality of applicant in three attempts. The best of 3 attempts are then taken as the final fingerprints.

Total number of overrides/ Total number of applicantsFormula

D M A I C

6

Normality Test

6P value (> 0.05) indicates data is normal

Ove rr ides data

Perc

ent

0.160.150.140.130.120.110.100.090 .08

99

95

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

5

1

M ean

0.586

0.1197

S tD ev 0.01378

N 31

A D 0.291

P -Valu e

Normality test for O verr ides dataNorm a l

P value (> 0.05) indicates there are no clusters,

mixtures, trends or oscillations in the data set. So

the process is statistically stable.

Observat ion

Overr

ides d

ata

30282624222018161412108642

0.15

0.14

0.13

0.12

0.11

0.10

Number o f run s abo u t med ian :

0.42514

17

Expec ted number o f run s: 16.48387

Lo ngest run abo u t med ian : 5

A pp ro x P -Valu e fo r C lu ster in g : 0.57486

A pp ro x P -Valu e fo r M ixtu res:

Number o f run s up o r d o w n :

0.84716

18

Expec ted number o f run s: 20.33333

Lo ngest run up o r d o w n : 4

A pp ro x P -Valu e fo r Trend s: 0.15284

A pp ro x P -Valu e fo r O sc illatio n :

Run Chart of O verrides data

0.150.140.130.120.110.100.090.08

USL

Process Data

Sample N 31

StDev (Within) 0.01228

StDev (Overall) 0.01390

LSL *

Target *

USL 0.08000

Sample Mean 0.11969

Potential (Within) Capability

CCpk -1.08

Overall Capability

Z.Bench -2.86

Z.LSL *

Z.USL -2.86

Ppk

Z.Bench

-0.95

Cpm *

-3.23

Z.LSL *

Z.USL -3.23

Cpk -1.08

Observ ed Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 1000000.00

PPM Total 1000000.00

Exp. Within Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 999385.42

PPM Total 999385.42

Exp. Overall Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 997859.02

PPM Total 997859.02

Within

Overall

Process capability for Overrides data

Z-bench: -3.23

DPMO: 997859

D M A I C

Gage R&R

Study Var %Study Var

Source StdDev (SD) (6 * SD) (%SV)

Total Gage R&R 0.401988 2.41193 86.94

Repeatability 0.391948 2.35169 84.77

Reproducibility 0.089281 0.53568 19.31

Operator 0.089281 0.53568 19.31

Part-To-Part 0.228416 1.37050 49.40

Total Variation 0.462351 2.77410 100.00

Repeatability is high, hence,

a. Instrument is improper –Maintenance of equipmentneeds to be standardized

b. Method of measurement is notOK – It was observed that staffwith low Overrides% followeda practice of attempting threetimes to capture the fingerprintwhich improved the successrates

The above mentioned solutions with be

included in the Improve Phase

D M A I C

Target settingTarget Setting

Overrides

0.150.140.130.120.110.100.090.080.07

_X

Ho

Boxplot of Overrides(with Ho and 95% t-confidence interval for the mean)

As the p value is less than 0.05, the target is statistically

significant.

O ne-Sam ple T: O verrides

Test of m u = 0.07 vs > 0.0795%

Lower

Variable N M ean StDev SE M ean Bound T P

O verrides 30 0.119190 0.013722 0.002505 0.114933 19.63 0.000

O ne-Sam ple T: O verrides

Test of m u = 0.07 vs > 0.0795%

Lower

Variable N M ean StDev SE M ean Bound T P

O verrides 30 0.119190 0.013722 0.002505 0.114933 19.63 0.000

Mean

DP

MO

< 11.92 % >

< 7.0% >

< 997859 >

< 99785 >

Baseline Target

Baseline Target

D M A I C

Quick Wins

99In case of overrides the data was captured manually onsheets of paper by the staff. This additional activitycontributed to nearly 5 mins/ override

Current Process

To have a drop down included in the software itself with themost frequent reasons for overrides.

Proposed Solution

1. NVA step reduced which resulted in nearly savings of 4 minutes/override

2. Real time report extraction resulted in more focus.

Benefits

Application screenshot

D M A I C

Pareto AnalysisPareto : Reason-wise

1: Aged Applicant (> 40 years)2: Children between 5 - 7 Years3: Scanner problem4: Medical Issues5: Too Moist Fingers6: Too Dry Fingers7: Low Sensitivity of scanners8: Too Dark Or Too White Fingers9: Others

Count

Perc

ent

Defects CategoryCount

38.9 34.0 11.1 4.7 3.8 3.6 3.8

Cum % 38.9 72.9

214

84.0 88.7 92.5 96.2 100.0

187 61 26 21 20 21

Percent

Other938561

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

100

80

60

40

20

0

Pareto chart for OverridesSequence

D M A I C

Root causes

Image1: Fingerprint Samples

Image 2: Application Snapshot

Defect Definition

D M A I C

Field Names Field Definitions

Total Overrides

On biometrics, overrides are the occasions when attempts have been made to take fingerprints to the standard

required, but all attempts fail the system threshold for quality. The poor quality fingerprints are nevertheless recorded.

Check the Biometric Captured image on extreme right.

Medical IssuesArthritis patients who have problem placing their fingers on the scanner in right position. Skin Infections where the

ridges and whorls are indistinct. Burnt Fingers

Aged Applicant (> 40

years)Due to old age, the whorls and the ridges are indistinct refer to 4th image from left leading to overrides

Children between 5 -

10 Years

At tender age the fingers are too tender hence the whorls and ridges are again indistinct refer to second image from

left which leads to overrides

Scarred and Cracked

fingers

Burns or cuts in childhood leaving marks on the fingers. Check the 6th image from left.

Lady applicants who do household work regularly, sometimes we find cracks or burns on their finger tips. Chose this

section only for age between 10 to 40

Too Moist FingersVery Rough or Coarse Finger tips. Check the 1st image from left "Too Much Pressure or we" and Chose this section

only for age between 10 to 40

Too Dry FingersPeople from cold regions have poor prints genetically and hence overrides becomes a must. Check the 4th image

from left "No Moisture". Chose this section only for age between 10 to 40

Too Dark Or Too White

Fingers

Fingerprints are indistinct due to fingers being too white or too dark, due to which the machine is unable to distinguish

between the ridges and whorls. Check the 4th image from left "No Moisture". Chose this section only for age between

10 to 40

Low Sensitivity of

scanners

Apparently despite the fingers being good (clear ridges and whorls and with no scars) the machine isn't able to

capture good quality fingerprint chose this option. Chose this section only for age between 10 to 40

Ridges and whorls too

thin

Finger texture is such that the whorls and the ridges are indistinct. Too dark fingers where the whorls and ridges are

all black and white in case of pale fingers. Chose this section only for age between 10 to 40

Root causesD M A I C

13

Solution Design Matrix

13

Solution Design Matrix 1 2

3 4

Impact

High Low

Feasib

ility

High

Low

Root cause Brainstormed solution Ratings Target dateResponsible

teamStatus

Dry Hands

1. Moisten Hands by rubbing them over

cheeks/forehead

2. Apply cream and incase it becomes too moist dry it

using a tissue

1 15th Feb 2011 Project team Closed

Standard

process

1. All staff to attempt 3 times before escalating it to

the supervisor1 15th Feb 2011 Project team Closed

Old Aged

applicants

1. Complete the cycle once and see which hand has

the problem and then try to recapture the same

hand rather than doing entire transaction again

1 15th Feb 2011 Project team Closed

Moist Hands1. Request applicants to clean/wash hands with wet

tissue1 21st Feb 2011 Project team Closed

Children

between 5 - 10

Years

1. Ask applicants parent to put pressure by placing

their fingers on the child's fingers. The fingers

should be pressed below the nail so that equal

pressure is put and the impression is not too dark

1 21st Feb 2011 Project team Closed

Finger not

being read

properly by the

scanner

1. Try changing the booth and recapture the

transaction

2. Regular maintenance of the biometric equipment

3. Biometric staff to have short nail to ensure no

scratches on the equipment

4. Fingerprint capturing plate should be covered

during non operational hours to avoid accumulation

of dust

1 24th Feb 2011 Project team Closed

D M A I C

14

Revised Process

Capability

14

New Process performance

0.0800.0640.0480.0320.016

USL

Process Data

Sample N 36

StDev(Within) 0.01181

StDev(Overall) 0.01629

LSL *

Target *

USL 0.08000

Sample Mean 0.05534

Potential (Within) Capability

CCpk 0.70

Overall Capability

Z.Bench 1.51

Z.LSL *

Z.USL 1.51

Ppk

Z.Bench

0.50

Cpm *

2.09

Z.LSL *

Z.USL 2.09

Cpk 0.70

Observed Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 83333.33

PPM Total 83333.33

Exp. Within Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 18349.28

PPM Total 18349.28

Exp. Overall Performance

PPM < LSL *

PPM > USL 64947.55

PPM Total 64947.55

Within

Overall

Process capability for Overrides data

PPM: 64947

Z value: 2.09

Mean

DP

MO

< 11.92 % >

< 7.0 %>

< 997859 >

< 99785 >

< 5.5 % >

< 64947 >

Baseline Target Improved

Baseline Target Improved

DPMO reduced by 93.5%

D M A I C

Control ChartControl Chart

After implementation of counter measures process control limit became narrow

O b s e r v a t i o n

Indiv

idual Valu

e

3 63 22 82 42 01 61 284

0 . 1 0

0 . 0 8

0 . 0 6

0 . 0 4

0 . 0 2

_X = 0 . 0 5 5 3 4

U C L = 0 . 0 9 0 7 5

L C L = 0 . 0 1 9 9 2

O b s e r v a t i o n

Movin

g R

ange

3 63 22 82 42 01 61 284

0 . 0 4

0 . 0 3

0 . 0 2

0 . 0 1

0 . 0 0

_ _M R = 0 . 0 1 3 3 2

U C L = 0 . 0 4 3 5 1

L C L = 0

I - M R C h a r t o f A f t e r O v e r r i d e s

I-MR Chart: Post Improvement

D M A I C

1616

Control MeasuresPlan

DoCheck

Action

Sl.

No.

PLAN DOCHECK ACT

Action Plan Description Responsibility Frequency

1 Internal Audit

Regular Internal Audits

to be conducted to

ensure SOP adherence

Regional Quality

Manager

1 audit every

monthInternal Audit Report

Corrective action to

be suggested by the

Regional Quality

Manager

2Escalation

Matrix

Any probable override

case to be informed to

the supervisor and

supervisor to handle that

case and share the

learning with other

officers

VAC Manager As applicable Day End Report

Feedback provided to

the staff &

performance

monitored to prevent

recurrence

3Monitoring

Plan

Control chart published

for overrides data

MIS to circulate

report

1st week of

every month

VAC Manager to escalate in the

event report not published as per

defined timelines. Also review

performance with the officers

Corrective action to

be taken by the VAC

supervisor

4 Staff KRA

Reducing Overrides

added as a KRA of the

Biometrics Staff, Center

Supervisor, Operations

manager and the Unit

Manager

MIS to circulate

reportWeekly

Staff to check their own

performance on a weekly

basis Perfor

mance to be discussed with staff

in the monthly review meeting

with supervisor

Supervisor to take

corrective action if

required

5Inter - VAC

Competition

Inter Visa Application

Center

Competition initiated

(overrides - 25% weight-

age and target <= 4% as

a qualifier to get into the

competition)

MIS to circulate

reportWeekly Global Performance Report

VAC Manager to

review performance

weekly & suggest

corrective action (if

applicable

D M A I C

1717

Project Closure

• Process Learning : Putting more focus on those overrides cases which are happening because of dry hand,

moist hand , old age applicant, child below 5~7 years age group. Learning shared with all VACs across the

globe.

• Change Management: Mission resistance observed initially when suggested the need for a maintenance

plan for the Biometric machines. Mission agreed for a regular machine maintenance & replacement

• People Management: Inconsistency observed in the number of attempts made by the staff to capture the

biometric. SOP designed and Internal Audits conducted to ensure adherence

• Client Recognition: Team received appreciation from Mission for taking the initiative to reduce overrides

• Internal management Recognition : The project bagged the an internal award from the Process Excellence

(received from the management) in the Quarterly Quality Summit

• Case study published in the Quarterly company newsletter

Learning

Team Recognition

1818

Project Benefits

Solution

deployed

Time

saved

Average number

of overrides per

month

Man hours

saved/monthFTE’s saved $ savings (annualized)

Drop down

included in the

software rather

than updating on

sheets of paper

4 mins/

override8885 592

{1 FTE works for 8 hours

in a day for 22 days in a

month.}

Hence 592/(22*8)

= 3.5

{1 FTE receives on an

average of

$333/month}

3 * $333 * 12

= $12,000

Overrides %

decreased from

12% to 7%

3

minutes/

override

8885 444 Hence 444/(22*8) = 2.52 * $333 * 12

= $7992

Improved

Mission and

applicant

satisfaction

Soft savings

Hence in 2 VAC’s in Mumbai, the savings generated is $19,992. If the learning's of the

project are implemented across the globe the savings would increase exponentially

19

Summary

A.Methodology Used- DMAIC

B.Please indicate why this project is an excellent improvement example.

19

Biometrics is a relatively new concept introduced by a few missions in the Visa processing process. It is also a

very critical step in ensuring secure immigration. More missions are in the process of including biometrics in

their Visa processing process .The project aimed at reducing the overrides (Overrides are the occasion when

three attempts have been made to take fingerprint to the standard required, but all three attempts fail the

system threshold for quality) from 12% to <7%.. The improvement project helped in ensuring better scores

from missions & saving penalties. Moreover, the best practices could be successfully deployed for other

missions thereby, ensuring secure immigrations. The improvements realized from this project have been

globally applied attracting appreciations from mission helping us gain competitive advantage.