Raytheon’s Office of the General Counsel used Six Sigma techniques to improve how that company collects, analyzes, processes and disposes of supplier and vendor bankruptcy notices (Met. Corp. Counsel, March 2005 at 52). (See also my posts of July 31, 2005 about GE and Six Sigma and Aug. 27, 2005 questioning its applicability to law departments.)
A team consisting of representatives from the Office – including the Senior Manager of Legal Operations – Supply Chain Management and outside counsel spent a day gathering and charting the various ways these notices were being handled. The team then used Six Sigma tools to design a new global process to be followed throughout Raytheon and a new system to track the work flow and resolution of each notice.