Project Overview
Cummins Inc.'s Enterprise Content Management team identified a strategic opportunity to advance the company's digital workplace transformation and environmental sustainability goals through enterprise-wide adoption of electronic signature technology. The organization had already reduced printing through departmental cost center chargebacks; the next opportunity was eliminating paper-based signature workflows that created delays in business transactions, increased storage costs, and contributed to the company's global carbon footprint.
The initiative faced significant organizational skepticism around the legal validity of digital signatures, requiring not only technology evaluation but comprehensive stakeholder education about regulatory compliance and enforceability. The objective was to identify an enterprise-standard electronic signature solution that would be legally defensible, globally scalable, and integrated with existing business systems including Salesforce, Microsoft platforms, and Box content management.
As Green Belt Six Sigma Project Lead, I applied DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology to systematically evaluate business requirements, conduct vendor research through RFI/RFP processes, and establish governance for digital signature adoption across the global organization.
Role
I served as Green Belt Six Sigma Project Lead, owning end-to-end responsibility for digital signature requirements definition, vendor evaluation, and ongoing governance. This role demanded balancing rigorous Six Sigma methodology with pragmatic business constraints, navigating a complex stakeholder landscape spanning Legal, Sales, Field Service, Procurement, and IT, and establishing sustainable organizational capabilities that could outlast the formal project timeline.
Project Scope
Business Case: What the Data Showed
The Define and Measure phases of DMAIC quantified where paper-based signature workflows were costing the business:
- Cost Savings Opportunity: $425,000 documented annually across paper, storage, and shipping
- Paper Storage: Eliminated physical storage costs for signed documents
- Expedited Shipping: Removed need for FedEx/carrier services to route signature pages
- Deal Closure: Reduced time required to complete business transactions
- Field Productivity: Increased efficiency for Sales and Field Service Technicians
- Legal Compliance: Stronger audit trails and document retention capabilities
- Carbon Footprint: Advanced corporate environmental sustainability goals
Phase 1: Requirements Discovery & Feasibility
I led Phase 1 using the Six Sigma DMAIC re-design methodology — Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control — to build a rigorous, data-backed business case for enterprise digital signature adoption.
- Developed a problem statement articulating the "why" behind digital signature adoption for stakeholder alignment
- Identified high-potential improvement areas within paper-based signature workflows
- Established project scope and deliverables
- Built value stream maps documenting every step in current-state signature processes
- Ran Voice of Customer analysis, capturing structured feedback from Sales, Legal, Service, and Procurement
- Mapped stakeholders across Legal, Sales, Service, Procurement, and IT
- Built a data collection methodology to quantify success metrics
- Established baseline data on paper consumption, expedited shipping costs, signature cycle times, and physical storage expenses
- Conducted FMEA to document potential failure points in existing workflows — documents lost in transit, signature authority confusion, incomplete forms requiring rework, and archival retrieval challenges
- Used KJ analysis, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and a Cause & Effect (C&E) matrix to prioritize functional requirements — security controls, mobile access, national/local regulatory compliance, legacy application integration, and audit tracking — and narrowed an initial candidate list of five vendors (Adobe Sign, Alpha Trust, DocuSign, SignNow, SignEasy) down for formal RFI
- Applied Root Cause Analysis, including change analysis and event/causal factor analysis, to understand why paper-based signature processes persisted despite known inefficiencies
- Ran a comprehensive FMEA identifying bottlenecks, defects, and shortcomings across current-state processes
- Developed a strategic improvement roadmap addressing both technology and organizational change management
- Communicated the proposed solution approach to impacted stakeholders
- Facilitated brainstorming sessions to generate implementation ideas
- Used Design of Experiments (DOE) to validate expected benefits of the proposed solution
- Revised process maps to incorporate digital signature workflows
- Outlined a pilot test approach with measurable success criteria
- Documented new work standards and procedures for digital signature use
- Built a quality control plan to ensure consistent execution across teams
- Established Statistical Process Control (SPC) mechanisms for ongoing monitoring
- Applied Lean Five S's principles to streamline improvements
- Documented lessons learned for organizational knowledge transfer
Phase 1 Key Findings
Research confirmed digital signatures would be legally binding and enforceable in courts of law across the primary jurisdictions where Cummins operates — directly addressing the top stakeholder concern that had been blocking adoption.
Cummins already held an enterprise Adobe Sign contract that was significantly underutilized — a discovery that reshaped the project from external procurement toward internal awareness and enablement.
Users lacked understanding of the distinction between electronic and digital signatures, and many potential users were unaware existing e-signature tools were already available — pointing to a need for internal marketing and training, not just technology.
The software certification team was fielding frequent requests for e-signature capabilities, and other Six Sigma initiatives — including efforts to improve Field Service Engineer efficiency — independently requested access, confirming demand well beyond the original project scope.
Phase 2: Vendor Evaluation & Enterprise Standardization
Following Phase 1 validation, I led vendor evaluation against the finalist shortlist — Adobe Sign, DocuSign, and OneSpan — developing and managing RFI/RFP processes and coordinating structured pilot testing with representative user groups across Sales, Service, and Legal.
The mid-project discovery of Cummins' underutilized existing Adobe Sign contract fundamentally reshaped Phase 2. Rather than a straightforward new-vendor procurement, the work became a strategic evaluation of whether to expand the existing agreement or pursue an alternative — I coordinated with Legal and Procurement to assess contract terms, pricing, and licensing structure options for scalable, global adoption. Requirements and architecture for connecting an enterprise e-signature platform to Salesforce, Microsoft, and Box were defined during this phase so that any solution — existing or new — could be embedded directly into stakeholders' existing workflows rather than operate as a standalone application.
Since no central funding was available to carry the initiative through a full enterprise-wide procurement and deployment, the formally chartered Six Sigma project closed at the end of Phase 1. Rather than treating that as a dead end, I redirected Phase 2 toward internal enablement: gathering departmental use cases for the existing Adobe Sign contract and working with Enterprise Architecture to formally designate Adobe Sign as Cummins' standard enterprise electronic signature tool in Q1 2019. Going forward, individual business units would fund and implement their own department-level rollouts against that standard.
Governance & Sustainability
I established a center of excellence serving as the enterprise governance body for digital signature usage. This structure controlled license allocation, evaluated incoming use-case requests, identified process reengineering opportunities, and ensured consistent application of digital signature capabilities across the organization. I became the point of contact for e-signature software requests, partnering with the software certification team so that inquiries were routed to my team rather than resulting in redundant tool proliferation across departments.
Challenges
Widespread uncertainty about the legal enforceability of digital signatures created adoption barriers, particularly among Legal, Compliance, and executive stakeholders accustomed to wet-ink processes — compounded by electronic signature laws varying across the countries where Cummins operates. Overcoming it required legal research, educational campaigns distinguishing electronic from digital signatures, and documentation of court precedents supporting enforceability.
Decades of paper-based workflows had created deeply ingrained habits around what counted as "official" documentation — sales teams used to physically signed contracts, field engineers relying on paper work orders, executives preferring tangible signature pages. Addressing it demanded change management combining user education, success-story evangelism, and demonstrated time savings rather than mandates.
Discovering mid-project that Cummins already owned an underutilized enterprise e-signature contract shifted the approach from external procurement to internal enablement. While ultimately beneficial from a cost perspective, it introduced complexity around whether to expand the existing agreement, renegotiate terms, or pursue alternative vendors — requiring careful financial and strategic analysis to land on the right path.
Cummins' technology ecosystem spanned Salesforce, Microsoft, and Box — each requiring a distinct integration approach to embed e-signature workflows seamlessly. Designing unified experiences across these platforms while preserving security, audit trails, and compliance tracking demanded careful API and UX planning to avoid fragmenting adoption.
Outcomes & Success Criteria
By the time the formally chartered project closed, the Six Sigma engagement had delivered a validated business case and a durable governance model for digital signature adoption across Cummins:
- Documented a $425,000 annual cost-savings opportunity through a rigorous, data-backed Six Sigma business case.
- Confirmed the legal enforceability of digital signatures across Cummins' primary operating jurisdictions, removing the top adoption barrier.
- Formally designated Adobe Sign as Cummins' enterprise-standard electronic signature tool with Enterprise Architecture in Q1 2019.
- Defined integration requirements connecting e-signature workflows to Salesforce, Microsoft, and Box rather than a standalone tool.
- Established a center of excellence governing license allocation, use-case evaluation, and ongoing standard adherence.
- Built a scalable framework that let individual business units fund and reengineer their own signature-dependent processes against a single enterprise standard.