The problem at IBM Credit was a major one. Getting a financing quote took anywhere from four to eight days (six days, on average), giving the customer time to rethink the order or find financing elsewhere. While the quote was being prepared, sales representatives would often call to find out where the quote was in the process, so that they could tell the customer when to expect it. However, no one at IBM Credit could answer the question, because the paper forms could be in any department and it was impossible to locate one without physically walking through the departments and going through the piles of forms on everyone’s desk.
IBM Credit examined the process and changed it so that each credit request was logged into a computer system so that each department could record an application’s status as soon as it was completed and sent it to the next department. In this way, sales representatives could call the credit office and quickly learn the status of each application. IBM used some sophisticated management science queuing theory analysis to balance workloads and staff across the different departments so that no applications would be overloaded. They also introduced performance standards for each department (e.g., the pricing decision had to be completed within one day after that department
received an application).