By Gail Dutton<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s not adding value, eliminate it,\u201d says Juan Amador, director of LEAN Six Sigma at Underwriters Laboratories (UL). That\u2019s the idea behind LEAN Six Sigma, but although leadership often \u201cgets it,\u201d selling the idea to employees can be challenging.<\/p>\n
There are several misconceptions about the approach. When LEAN Six Sigma was introduced at UL, \u201cpeople thought it was the flavor of the month,\u201d Amador says. To counter that perception, ensure leadership thoroughly understands the concepts and is committed to continuous improvement. The CEO also promised no one would lose his or her job because of it. That increased buy-in, so the process could get the best results possible. UL also had to overcome the perception that LEAN Six Sigma was only for manufacturing environments. \u201cWe had to show it worked and translate manufacturing examples to UL processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe urge to jump to solutions is a common temptation,\u201d says Donald Baker, Ph.D., executive director, The John D. Hromi Center for Quality and Applied Statistics, Rochester Institute of Technology. At Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, NY, \u201cproject leaders often complained, \u2018I can\u2019t believe it takes so long.\u2019 Yet, when they bring in a LEAN Six Sigma black belt, the project takes off,\u201d according to Michael Jorolemon, DO, senior quality officer for emergency medicine for Crouse Hospital. According to Dr. Baker, who worked with Crouse Hospital on the project, \u201cThe structured improvement process of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) leads to a more holistic, sustainable, and preventive solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Project leaders tend to allocate insufficient time to work on the project outside the training classes, leading to one of the most common implementation mistakes: not establishing an organizational structure to support the program, Dr. Baker says. \u201cThis includes selecting a champion to coordinate, assign, and monitor projects, and a steering committee to establish policies and to evaluate and celebrate team successes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That structure should include a method to identify which individuals will be trained at which level. \u201cAs a general rule, we recommend that 1 percent of the employees be trained as black belts, 10 percent as green belts, 20 percent as yellow belts, and the remainder as white belts. Training for the leadership team and sponsors also can be added,\u201d Dr. Baker says.<\/p>\n
After about a year, \u201cmany organizations go through a \u2018Valley of Despair,\u2019 and people start pushing back,\u201d Dr. Baker notes. He advises, \u201cSolicit feedback, make course corrections, and then hit the accelerator even harder to make it out of the valley.\u201d It also helps to maintain a database of projects in progress and completed that is open to anyone in the organization, so they can build on prior experiences.<\/p>\n
Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n Crouse Hospital used LEAN Six Sigma in house before expanding it to 15 emergency management service (EMS) agencies in five counties in April 2012. It approached training on a project basis, developing five teams. They focused on prompt care, transportation improvement, handoff, myocardial infarction (heart attack) treatment, and EMS protocols to improve patient care from the field to the catheter lab and hospital.<\/p>\n By addressing the root of the problem, by July, \u201cEMS offload time from stretcher to bed had been cut from 20 minutes (although waits of one to two hours were not atypical) to approximately six minutes, thus freeing EMS crew for other emergencies.\u201d The time from the door to the beginning of angioplasty procedures has dropped to as few as 20 minutes, beating the national goal of 90 minutes, Dr. Jorolemon says.<\/p>\n Experts from Rochester Institute of Technology\u2019s Center for Excellence Personnel trained personnel for one day per week. \u201cDuring their time outside class, participants worked on their specific projects. When the projects are complete, they can use the methodology as a project manager and sustain the improvements\u201d and extend the philosophy throughout their own organizations.<\/p>\n UL started its LEAN Six Sigma process in 2005, dedicating two days of a three-day global meeting to LEAN simulations. \u201cAt this point,\u201d Amador says, \u201cit was all about awareness. Our leaders chose to use this method, and used value-stream mapping of our processes to show all of our employees around the world the actual processes and say, \u2018Can you believe we\u2019re actually doing this?!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n UL also taught the language of change. That one-day green belt training focused on Kaizen events. \u201cWe still teach the language of change, but we are moving to LEAN leadership, so they lead an environment of daily improvement,\u201d Amador says. \u201cToday, nearly half of UL\u2019s 10,000 employees have had some degree of LEAN training,\u201d<\/p>\n At Menlo Worldwide Logistics, \u201cwe worked with several methodologies and practices to drive continuous improvement between 2000 and 2005,\u201d says Anthony Oliverio, VP for Supply Chain Services. \u201cWhen the organization got serious about choosing a single methodology, we chose LEAN as our standard operating philosophy. We then defined a change management strategy and determined how to navigate obstacles and set goals in major areas\u2014including some with immediate results.\u201d<\/p>\n Inmar, which operates collaborative commerce networks, began LEAN Six Sigma as an outgrowth of its 5S (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain) program to make workplace optimization easy to understand. \u201cWe\u2019re a process- intensive business, so it\u2019s commonsense to apply these tools. In our experience, employees are happier when the organization runs well,\u201d notes Steve Dollase,\u00a0EVP of Strategy.<\/p>\n Expectations<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a goal, you don\u2019t have a plan,\u201d Dollase notes. Inmar sets goals related to net present dollar savings from LEAN. Without metrics, he says, success simply can\u2019t be determined.<\/p>\n At UL, leadership expects continual improvements, but lets employees set the goals. \u201cOur employees are empowered to innovate,\u201d Amador says. As such, employees are encouraged to solve issues daily, \u201cnot just for big projects.\u201d When employees decided to cut turnaround time by half, they ended up cutting it by 60 percent.<\/p>\n Buy-In<\/strong><\/p>\n LEAN Six Sigma requires hands-on, results-oriented training. People have to make a difference. As a trainer, you have to build a foundation by showing why it matters and how it\u2019s relevant. One of the challenges is to explain that change is necessary for the continued success of the organization. Success depends upon keeping people energized, and that requires follow-through.<\/p>\n \u201cTop leadership buy-in and transparency are essential,\u201d Oliverio stresses. \u201cEmployees understand the process. They\u2019re empowered, so there\u2019s no fear around making changes and recommendations. We weave continuous improvement into the organization\u2019s core value.\u201d<\/p>\n