Lean Business Process Improvement

Industry: Non-Profit
Company size: Medium
Level: Senior & Mid-level Leaders
Participants: 12

Objectives

A non-profit organization in Ireland partnered with MCD Consulting to document their workflows into repeatable systems and processes and adopt a continuous improvement approach. Through investing in business process improvement, the company aimed to improve internal efficiencies as well as customer experience. The company wanted to supported to break down silos and empower the streamlining of services across departments. The hope was for teams and individuals to know what is required from them to deliver the experiences that customers expect.

Approach

This programme followed three stages. The initial stage was the departmental-specific process identification. This was followed by cross-departmental process-mapping workshops and finished with a half day follow-up review session. Lean tools and thinking were applied to prioritize processes for improvement, identify process issues and opportunities for improvement. The team were facilitated to engage in root cause analysis and countermeasure analysis before creating an improvement plan with clear responsibilities and timeframes.

The review took place 8 weeks after the mapping sessions. The review session supported the Lean model of PDCA (Plan Do Check Act). The team revisited the plan of action, identified progress and checked the impact of actions. Time was provided to identify next steps and actions to standardize what worked.

At a glance

Challenges

  • Identification and prioritization of processes for improvement
  • Making time for improvement work
  • Finding the right approach and frameworks to support continuous improvement

Results

  • Streamlining and standardization of two complex cross-functional processes
  • An improvement plan in place for each process
  • A system in place to support continuous improvement in the organization

Outcomes

1.Onboarding and Payroll/Rostering processes were mapped, improved, documented and standardized across all services

Process maps were created for Onboarding & Rostering/Payroll. Opportunities for immediate improvement and standardization were identified. Each process was documented into an SOP

2. Improvement Plans in Place

An improvement plan was put in place for both processes. The plan highlighted the issues that remained with the process and the actions that were agreed to address these issues and increase efficiencies going forward. Actions and timeframes were clearly laid out.

3. A system to support continuous improvement

The team were supported to identify how to use their existing systems to support continuous improvement with these processes, and others into the future. Data collection and analysis systems were identified as well as monitoring and reporting. Specific feedback mechanisms and communication channels were agreed.

Testimonial

Catherine was extremely effective whilst working with teams across all the service. Catherine got buy in and accountability from all involved and has left us with a great plan for positive permanent change. We would definitely recommend working with Catherine.