Quality Management Initiatives
SCSK's Philosophy on Quality
SCSK believes that customer satisfaction is the top priority when it comes to the quality provided by products and services. Accordingly, it is essential to improve the quality of operations in terms of both management and deliverables.
We refer to the combination of these two types of quality as “SCSK Quality.”
Delivering Greater Operational Quality with SE+
Process standardization is vital to ensuring the profitability of a project. This includes processes to control risks and create outcomes with robust quality.
Starting in fiscal 2012, SCSK introduced process standards called “SmartEpisode Plus (SE+)” for project management and system development. SE+, which combines our long-standing frontline expertise, focuses on the quality of systems and services and contains the necessary basics and points for carrying out daily operations. SCSK utilizes SE+ for project management that ensures a consistent level of quality.
Since introducing SE+, we have worked to create an environment conducive to using SE+, develop human resources who can use SE+, and take steps to encourage the adoption of SE+. As a result, 85% of our projects up to fiscal 2016 used SE+. In fiscal 2017, we are aiming to increase this percentage to 100%. The greater use of SE+ will enable us to further improve quality across the entire organization.
Development Process
The development process is the foundation of systems development. SE+ provides standardized model designed for development from scratch. It also provides a standardized tailoring model designed for utilizing FastAPP, implementation of ERP packages.
Project Management
SE+ increases project efficiency by standardizing management process from business inquiries to project completions. It also defines implementation processes for organized project management, through visualization of schedule, quality and cost of the project.
Organizational Activities
SE+ also defines plan-do-check-act(PDCA) initiatives to increase the quality of project activities and improve standardized processes. These initiatives include rigorous evaluation of standardized processes and process implevement activities.
Visualizing Project Status with “SE+ (Navi)”
The projects SCSK implements are becoming larger in size and more complex as business grows. As a result, we developed SE+ (Navi) as a platform for project management based on SE+ and introduced it from fiscal 2016, with the goal of visualization and streamlining of project implementation.
SE+ (Navi) visualizes the status of a project, including quality and profitability, and results of various checks, which enables line managers to facilitate the project and senior management to make decisions quickly.
The adoption of SE+ (Navi) provides comprehensive visualization of development processes and project statuses, resulting in further improvements in development quality and productivity.
SE+ Master Certification Program for HR Development
Instilling process standards requires not only the right environment and systems, but also human resources development. Starting in fiscal 2016, SCSK launched the SE+ Master certification program for recognizing human resources with SE+ skills as well as an SE+ certification test. In the first six months a total of more than 1,400 employees passed the test and obtained certification. This number is currently on the rise.
In addition, SE+ introduction leaders have been appointed in every department, various training and briefings are being held, and a guidebook has been published and distributed in order to develop human resources capable of using SE+.
Framework Supporting Quality on a Companywide Basis
In addition to general quality control processes implemented in projects, we promote companywide quality improvement activities developed from a third-party perspective, such as Project Management Office (PMO) and quality control divisions, etc. Through these activities, we are raising quality throughout the entire period of projects and across the organization.
As a result, we are now better able to curtail unprofitable projects and ensure that quality checks and quality reports are prepared, leading to enhanced competitiveness through higher quality.
Enhancing Competitiveness by Curtailing Unprofitable Projects and Elevating Quality
In fiscal 2016, we started using a project management platformcalled SE+ (Navi) that helps visualize the results of checks and the project status. This has enabled us to discover and address issues in projects at the organization level.
As a result, we are now better able to curtail unprofitable projects and ensure that quality checks and quality reports are prepared, leading to enhanced competitiveness through higher quality.