Thinking Outside the Classroom
For many school districts, training can be a barrier to using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) into improve how their schools run. Even though leaders recognize the benefits of LSS methods, it boils down to a cost, time and staff resource issue. With limited resources at their disposal, districts simply can’t afford to take staff out of the classroom to attend weeks of training. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box – or in this case, outside the classroom. Marion City Schools in Marion, Ohio, for example, partnered with a local university to get the training job done and improve their operations. First, Superintendent Gary Barber and school leaders met with the district’s 700 staff to pinpoint key areas for improvement. They narrowed the list to four processes they knew could be better, and would make an impact on the district’s overall operations: 1) purchase orders; 2) facility use 3) professional development and 4) busing. Take busing, for example. The district has grown rapidly, with the addition of six new elementary schools throughout the city in a few short years. That growth complicated the busing system, with 2,300 students being transported every day. Coupled with a shortage of bus drivers and students’ varied schedules, they knew they had to get creative and use Lean Six Sigma tools to be more efficient. At this point, many organizations would bring in a consultant to teach Lean Six Sigma over the course of many months. For school districts, however, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to have teachers, staff and administrators out of the office for a week or more to attend training. Instead, Marion Schools partnered with the Alber Enterprise Center at The Ohio State University at Marion to allow staff to complete the majority of their training online. Staff participated in webinars and online learning and discussion, plus met with a LSS black belt Norma Simons, President of Performance Innovation LLC and an Alber educator partner, to apply the LSS tools to the four projects identified by the district. Check out this case study about the district’s efforts and successes, as well as Alber Enterprise Center’s web-based training options. If you are a school district or a small not-for-profit, I encourage you to “think outside the classroom” too, and consider whether online training can help you gain the tools needed to make your workplace better. How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
Read MoreLessons Learned: Using Six Sigma to Improve College Graduation Rates
How to increase graduation rates is a constant challenge at most universities. Typically, about half of the students who start a four-year degree program graduate within six years. I know…there were many days during my years in college that I thought I might become one of those statistics! An article in the September issue of ISE Magazine presents an interesting case study about how Indiana-based Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, one of the top ranked engineering colleges in the nation, used Six Sigma tools to improve student retention. They did it by using Six Sigma, a set of tools often used in manufacturing, and successfully adapting it to their academic setting. Director of Institutional Research Timothy Chow and Engineering Management Department Head Craig Downing describe how, about six years ago, Rose-Hulman administrators noticed a slight increase in the number of its first-year students dropping out. They took a proactive approach. A project team conducted a study to find out why these students were leaving. Leaders hoped the study would uncover cost-effective ways to reverse this trend. The team used Six Sigma’s standardized define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) process for the project. This approach gave the team a structured framework to document its work, organize information, review current processes, and summarize and share process improvement activities and operational results. The team used data analysis to identify potential root causes for students dropping out. They identified three groups of first-year students with increased risk of attrition. The first group was identified according to their mathematics background and preparation for college. The second group was identified based on students’ academic probation status during their first college year. The third group was identified through observers, such as coaches and instructors, who had frequent contact with the students and could report any observed at-risk behaviors. Targeted interventions were carried out for each of the three at-risk student groups. While the overall student attrition rate dropped only slightly at first, from 8.57% to 8.52%, it was enough to spur the team’s efforts. With the successful pilot results for determining attrition risk factors, new processes were established to help identify potentially at-risk students early and offer tailored interventions according to their needs. What’s the lesson learned here? Six Sigma isn’t just for manufacturing. By adapting Six Sigma to their needs, universities and other service organizations can reap benefits of the data-driven, process-oriented framework to improve their processes. Give it a try! How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace. ...
Read MoreOperational Improvement Tips for Your Small to Mid-Sized Company
For my birthday a friend gave me a pair of gloves for surviving these rough Midwest winters where I live. They are beautiful, and very much appreciated. Inside the gloves, however, is a small tag that reads, “One size fits all.” Trying them on proved that claim to be a bit of false advertising! Thankfully my friend didn’t mind making a quick exchange for me, and now I am set for the next snow season months away. The incident made me think, though, about companies that try to adopt the “one size fits all” mentality, especially when it comes to improving business processes. Implementing process improvement programs such as Lean and Six Sigma can sometimes feel like a glove that doesn’t fit right. There are ways, though, to deploy data-driven tools like Lean and Six Sigma for smaller and mid-sized organizations that doesn’t require the massive all-or-nothing approach. It allows them to implement at a slower, more manageable pace. The strategy and projects are directly aligned to the organization’s strategic plan and customer needs. As a result, they often are more successful in achieving business improvements quickly, and on a grander scale, than their larger counterparts. Even if you are a biotech or pharma start-up or a not-for-profit with 5 or less employees, you can benefit from taking a data-driven approach to your business operations. How can I use data to be smarter about my financial projections? How should the start-up prepare itself for growth? What must be done to meet the milestones established by the investors (market)? How does a company know if it can achieve its goals? Are resources appropriately applied; is this the best ROI that can be expected? What risks must be addressed immediately? Sometimes small to mid-sized organizations don’t realize that their size actually puts them at an advantage in the market, if they can just harness their data to make smart business decisions. If you run a small to mid-sized organization, what has been your experience with operational improvement initiatives? I’d love to hear your story! If you have a business process that needs a “check-up,” please email me! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
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