How do I do more with less and still
please my customers
Presented by Michael Ryer
Frontier Airlines Continuous Improvement Manager (Retired)
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Here’s what I do for fun…
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
I live in a tornado…
 A pass bureau manager told me:
 We need to streamline our process, do more with less.
 We are pulled in 10 directions at one time.
 We receive a pass request and work them in date order. We have to
touch one 4 to 5 times to see why it’s sitting in the mailbox. Agents
attach their name to it and it sits until the more urgent ones are
processed. Occasionally some are missed because the timed out.
 We have the same deal with company business (COBUS) travel. We
work them by date, not when we’ve received them, so we may miss
one that’s been here a long time, or, the flight is full by the time we
get to it. With COBUS, we may get the air done and hotel and car
are still pending. We set it aside and start the next one. Then we
have to determine if the hotel and/or car has confirmed and which
employee the confirmation was for.
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
In the beginning was the “Plan”…
And then came the assumptions and the assumptions were without form
and the Plan was completely without substance and the darkness fell
upon the faces of the workers.
The workers spoke amongst themselves, saying, “This Plan is a crock
of crap and it stinketh!”
And the workers went unto their supervisors and sayeth unto them, “It is a
pile of dung and none may abide the odor thereof!”
And the supervisors went unto their managers and sayeth unto them, “It is a
container of excrement and it is very strong such that none may abide it.”
And the managers went unto their directors and sayeth unto them, “It is a
vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength. And the directors went
unto their vice presidents and sayeth unto them, “It contains that which aids
plant growth and is very powerful, indeed.”
The vice presidents went before the president and the chairman and sayeth
unto them, “This powerful new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency
of the company and this product line in particular.” And the leaders looked upon
the Plan, saw that it was good and it became POLICY.
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Improvement Emphasis
Big Picture of Lean/Six Sigma…What is it?
Reduced Costs (COQ*) Over Time
Time
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Improvement Emphasis
Big Picture of Lean/Six Sigma…What is it?
Drive Out Waste
• Identify Waste
• Five S
• Lean Tools and Techniques
Reduced Costs (COQ*) Over Time
Time
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Big Picture of Lean/Six Sigma…What is it?
Improvement Emphasis
Advanced Quality Systems Oversight
Drive Out Waste
• Identify Waste
• Five S
• Lean Tools and Techniques
Reduced Costs (COQ*) Over Time
Drive Out Variation
• Process Control
• Six Sigma Tools
Time
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
*Cost of Quality
Boeing Commercial Aircraft View of Lean, but, it is not just for manufacturing…
Lean Element
Desired Characteristics
Lean Business Strategy
Develop and Deploy a Lean Strategy to Ensure Lean Gains
Lead Time
Minimize Lead Time for Operational Flexibility
On Time Delivery
Deliver the Right Part, at the Right Time, to the Right Location, in the Right
Packaging to Meet Customer Inventory Requirements
Use of Kanban
Use Kanban and Build to Customer’s Demand Schedule
E-Commerce
Data Links for RFQ, Production and Billing to Ease Information Flow
Standard Work Flow
Use Takt Time, Standards and Continuous Improvement for Best Work Flow
Set-Up Reduction
Use Pallets, Shadow Boards and SMED to Speed Through Put
5-S (6-S adds Safety)
Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain Operational Efficiency
Method Sheets
Optimize Method Sheets and Illustrate Entire Operation to Reduce Confusion
Total Productive Maintenance
Data Driven Equipment, Tooling and Machine Maintenance for More Up Time
Visual Management
Production Status Available at a Glance for Exception Management
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
What is Lean/Six Sigma?
We are pleasure/pain animals. If I have pain,
I want to move away from it. Lean/Six Sigma helps
define what is causing me pain and helps build a
repeatable methodology to avoid it.
To do this, I need to talk about some things:







W. Edwards Deming and 14 step methodology
Goal Post Mentality
Variation
Standard Deviation
Waste
DMAIC
Data Management
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Does it work?
 Boeing Aerospace - Reduced billing errors to zero, billing cycle
time from 20 days to 3, reduced technical order processing time by 50%
 PIE Trucking - Reduced freight bill errors from 10% to 1% and
improved productivity 30%
 US Department of Education - Reduced application
processing time for certifying higher education institutions by 20%
 Virtua Health Care Clinic - Streamlining payroll process errors
reducing rework by 78%, decreasing over-processing by 58%, and
saving $3,000 in paper costs.
 Frontier Airlines – Developed centralized weight and balance
program. Saved $750 M in first year. Avoided major FAA LOI fine.
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Deming’s 14 Points
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Create a constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service
Adopt a new philosophy about responsibility and leadership
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality
End the practice of awarding business to the lowest bidder. Instead,
minimize your cost.
Improve processes
Institute training on the job
Adapt and institute leadership
Drive out fear of change
Break down barriers between departments
Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the work force
Eliminate quotas for the workers and numerical goals for managers
Remove barriers robbing people of pride in workmanship
Provide education and self improvement for everyone
Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish transformation
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Goal Post Mentality or if its in specification,
its good to go!
JUNK
JUNK
LSL
Target
Value
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
USL
What is variation?
 Cause and Effect-The notion of the predictability of something happening
when a known set of circumstances are present
 Common Cause-Differences in the outcome of a process which are attributed
to random happenings. Examples of common cause variation are:
 Floods
 Strikes
 Elections
 Assignable Cause-Differences in the outcome of a process attributed to a
specific happening. Examples of assignable causes of variation are:
 People
 Process
 Material
 Machine
 Measurement
 Environment
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Six Sigma is really about Standard Deviation
Standard Deviation-Measures and quantifies variation.
Its in the same units as the data
Same flights but different processing times. Which process is more in control?
Trip
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
AVEREAGE
SIGMA
Booking Time
15.00
5.00
25.00
120.00
6.00
24.00
38.00
147.00
61.00
43.00
48.40
45.92
It is all about
WASTE
Not Capable
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Trip
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
AVEREAGE
SIGMA
Booking Time
7.00
9.00
6.00
8.00
5.00
5.00
8.00
7.00
10.00
4.00
6.90
1.81
Capable
We want to reduce WASTE over time…
Over the long haul, we want less of this!
USL
UCL
Performance
Target
LCL
LSL
Time
Over the long haul, we want more of this!
“Continual Improvement”
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Let’s define WASTE…
There are defined kinds of waste:
 Waiting - for anything or anyone
 Excess Motion - motion or movement should add value to
the product or service
 Conveyance - transporting farther than necessary,
temporarily locating, restacking, or moving parts, people,
and information
 Correction/Rework – fixing junk
 Over-production - producing more that required or
producing too soon
 Inventory - too much of anything is waste; anything
unneeded is waste
 Processing - things the customer does not want nor
recognize
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Talk about a revolution…Removing WASTE…
C=P+W+C+V
P = The pain of making a change
W = The willingness of the folks in the process to make a change
C = The cost, real and imagined, of making the change
V = The vision of what the world will look like after the change
Change is hard and it can be managed!
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
How do we get rid of WASTE?
 DMAIC is an acronym for:
 Define – What is the problem, what is the existing process
like, what does perfection look like?
 Measure – How big is the problem, how often does it
happen, what is the impact when it does happen, how does
the process work without the problem?
 Analyze – What does the data tell me about the problem?
 Improve – What can I do to reduce or eliminate the
problem?
 Control – How do I make sure the problem never comes
back?
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
First, we need to define our process…
Boundary
Boundary
Process
Input
Output
Feed Back
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Define Customer Interfaces…
S I P O C
1
2
3
This is the boundary between two processes. Process 1 generates products
(deliverables) which feed into Process 2. The speed of delivery, quantity and
quality are critical at this point. Feedback occurs across this interface to ensure
Process 1 makes what Process 2 needs and Process 2 tells Process 1 if it is okay.
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
How do we define the process?
Process Documentation
2. Identify areas where the process is not being
followed
1.



Differences due to error?
Differences due to personal preference?
Differences due to doing it a better way?
3. What would happen if the process were run as
designed?
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Found some problems?
Clean up ‘em up with Five S…
The Five S’s are…
1. Sort – Segregate and discard un-needed stuff in
the process area
2. Straighten – Arrange and identify the needed
things for the process
3. Shine – Keep the process area neat and orderly on
a daily basis
4. Standardize – Run the process the same way,
everyday
5. Sustain – Do not let the process slip back into old
ways
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
How do measure the process?
 In God we trust, all others bring facts – Let’s go see if
what we think is a problem, really is a problem.
 Data Gathering Tools:
 Process Map
 Process Audits
 Time Motion Studies
 Review of Historical Data
 Review of Quality Problems
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
How do we analyze all this data?
People
Process
Environment
WASTE
Measurement
Machine
Material
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Goal = Reduce Waste
How do we select what to improve?
 Sorting the trivial “many” from the significant “few”
 Multi-Voting
 Bang for the buck and return on investment
 Best ROI is 18 to 24 months
 Easy or Hard
 Low hanging fruit versus planting a new orchard
 PDCA/SDCA
 Define new performance requirements and how to get
there and then how to sustain the new process
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
How do we control the new process?
 Capability analysis through audit and customer
satisfaction
 Capture the process and keep it whole…
 Mistake Proofing
 Standard Procedures
 Responsibility Audits
 Financial Analysis – Did we save any time and money?
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Where do we look for the next improvement?
 We have learned how to systematically look at our
process
 We have established performance measures and
metrics the process is capable of producing
 We focus on our customer needs and the airline needs
for an efficient (no waste) and effective (meets internal
and external customer requirements) process
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
Tha, Tha, That’s all folks…
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association
References
 The Black Belt Memory Jogger – GOAL/QPC
 Lean Thinking - Womack and Jones
 Quality is Free – Cosby
 What is Six Sigma – Pande and Holpp
 Juran on Leadership for Quality – Juran
 Schaum’s Outline Series, Statistics - Spiegel
 The Goal – Goldratt
 Teaching the Elephant to Dance - Belasco
Lean/Six Sigma For Pass Bureau Association