The 5-day Lean Event
Mark Robinson, The University of St Andrews
Numbers
The University
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Motto
– AIEN ARISTEUEIN ‘Ever to be the Best’
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Tradition
– Scotland's first university and the third oldest in the
English speaking world
– 600 years old (almost)
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Teaching and Research
– One of Europe's leading and most distinctive centres
for teaching and research
– Doing well in lots of rankings
Our approach to Lean
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‘Can do’
Focus on working with Service Units
– Core processes to enable Teaching, Learning and
Research
– Customer Service, Quality, Efficiency
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Embed Lean
– ‘Lean’ is how we do things around here
– It’s everyone’s job to improve everything
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Lean Team works itself out of a job
How we do it
8 Step Process
Request
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An area of potential work is identified
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By frontline staff, managers, students, ….
Raise issue with Lean Team
1 to 2 hours
Discuss feasibility
The process concerned will not be broken
Evolved to where it is now
Scope
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Goals, project team and resources agreed
– 3 to 4 staff
• Process owner/s
• Key stakeholder/s
– Half a day
– Outcomes:
• Goals
• Deadline
• Resourcing
• Who
Plan
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Project Team reviews goals & agrees approach
– Half a day
– Outcomes:
• Goals finalised
• Data gathering and stakeholder consultation identified
• How long
• When
• Where
Train
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All project team members, incl. those ‘on call’
– Half day (before Redesign)
– Cover:
• History of Lean
• 2 Fundamentals, 5 Principles, 8 Wastes
• Some key Lean tools
• Successes
• What will happen during Redesign
Redesign Part 1
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Map how things are done at the moment
– Paper, pens and post-its
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Review data about the current process
– Volumes, timings
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Generate and analyse ideas about how things
could be done
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Pens and post-its
No conferring
Cluster
Analysis
Redesign Part 2
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Design a new process
– Paper, pens and post-its
– Ideal process
– Interim process
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Create an action plan to ensure the new
process is put in place
– Excel
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Project team presents the new process
– Co-workers
– Management
Redesign Part 3
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Working with the right people, the right
information and with the authority to act
Asking lots of questions - 5 Whys?
Two heads better than one
Having fun!
Implement
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New process put in place
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All or part may happen during Redesign
Ideally, the new world begins immediately
Actually, takes time: days, weeks or months
Perseverance
Review
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Lean maintains a management role
– Momentum stalls
– Reverse gear
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Progress is monitored
– Regular meetings with Project Team
• 2 to 3 hours
• 2 weeks, then monthly until new processes proven
– Maintain enthusiasm
– Maintain momentum
– Deal with issues immediately
Feedback
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With Project Team
Project ‘signed off’
How was it for you?
– How can Lean improve?
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Anything else we can do for you?
8 Step Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Request
Scope
Plan
Train
Redesign
Implement
Review
Feedback
Challenges
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Perceptions of Lean
– Staff and management buy-in
– Convincing academics
– Link between Lean and staff and cost savings
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Ownership/Direction
– Ownership of cross-functional processes
– Strategic alignment
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Easy to get the benefits of some Lean tools, but it
takes unshakeable management commitment and
hard work over an extended time to start to become
truly Lean
Successes Part 1
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23 x 5, 9 x 4 and 15 x 3 day events
Better service to Students
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Status Letters
Library Services
Society Formation
Self Certification of Absence
Simpler administration for staff
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Gift processing
Finance processes e.g. Cash Handling Policy, AP, Sales Invoicing
Casual staff contracts
Estates job tracking
Successes Part 2
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Focus on improving Service Unit processes
– Efficiency
– Effectiveness
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Embed Lean
– Bringing staff closer together
– Breaking down silos
More time to do the important stuff
‘He that will not apply new remedies must
expect new evils’
- Francis Bacon