How To Scope A Lean Event

Abstract
As we all know, anything poorly scoped can create chaos,
uncertainty and failure to achieve a goal – this certainly
applies to Lean events. When we bite off too much, we may
not get off the starting line because there’s too much to talk
about. If we do get moving we tend to go in many different
directions and accomplish little. If our scope is too small,
we waste valuable resources and miss the target.

We’ll look at how to get started, how to identify and avoid
common mistakes, and what tools might be helpful.

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© 2009 Guidon Performance Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved. Guidon Performance Solutions is a licensee of LeanSigma®, a service mark of TBM Consulting Group.

Project Selection
When selecting a project, most organizations will use one of two
methods to decide where to start…

Strategy Pain

3

Project Selection
STRATEGY DRIVEN:
• Based on other projects or initiatives currently “in-
flight”
• Based on a Value Stream analysis of the organization
• Based on new rules or regulations that take effect in
the future

PAIN DRIVEN:
• Based on process problems – backlogs, high defect
rate, overworked staff, missed deadlines, etc
• Based on organizational concerns – not meeting
regulatory guidelines, budget cuts, complaints, etc
4

Project Selection Key Steps
• Ensure project aligns with agency mission / strategy
• Assess project desirability
• Impact
• Effort
• Probability of success
• Select projects that are visible and capable of getting the
attention of the organization and other departments

5

Agency Strategies and LeanSigma®

VOB
Strategic Hoshin VOC

Tactical Brain
VOP
Storming

PerceptionB Data
ased Based

6

Project Desirability Matrix
The desirability of a project increases as you move from the
lower right to the upper left, and as the circle gets larger

Hi PROBABILITY
OF SUCCESS
AGENCY
IMPACT

Low
Med
Med

Low Hi

Low Med Hi
EFFORT REQUIRED
7

Impact on Process
Definition of Impact:
• The effect change will have on the process in terms
of improving service – cost - quality

Typical Little or No Impact:
• Creating or revising a report
• Installing a measurement system
• Quantifying the performance of a process
• Reducing cycle time of a non-bottleneck operation

8

Effort Required
Definition of Effort:
• Your time, time required of the team members, and
any expenditure of money

Typical High Effort:
• Installing a new computer system
• Requires changes to regulations or statutes
• “Fixing” the annual planning process

9

Definition of Probability of Success
Assess the various risk factors:
• Time - uncertainty of the completion date
• Effort - uncertainty of the investment required
• Implementation - uncertainty of roadblocks
Typical Low Probability of Success:
• Won’t show the benefits within a year
• Depends upon completion of other risky projects
• Requires help from extremely busy people
• Is not aligned with your objectives

10

Characteristics of a LeanSigma® Project
The Project:
• Is linked to a critical agency goal and will positively
impact the goal’s metric
• Is in line with the project selection criteria used by
Executive Leaders
• Deals with an issue or problem that is linked to a process
with clearly defined begin and end points
• Has easily identifiable internal or external Customers
who use or receive the output from the process
• You’re able to find out how the output is used by the Customer
• You’re able to find out why the output is important to the
Customer

11

Characteristics of LeanSigma® Project
A Project:
• Has a measure you can clearly identify and impact
• Is one in which you can show how improvements will
impact service, cost and quality
• Has the organizational support to make it happen
• Has a champion who cares about the improvement and has the
authority to approve time and resources
• Has identified process owner(s)

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Identify Initial Scope of the Event
Answer these questions to
prepare for next steps:

• Why was this area / project
chosen?
• Whatspecific process or
piece of the process will
we focus on?
• What are the measures of
success?

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Identify Key Participants
Event Sponsor:
• This person typically owns the process where the event is taking
place
• Helps team members get time away to do the event
• Removes roadblocks and supports the process 100%
Team Leader:
• Best if this person is from an outside department or agency
• Has had previous continuous improvement experience
• Helps with logistics and planning of the event
• Helps lead the team during the event
Team Members:
• Key managers and staff who work in or with the process

14

Scoping Event (Pre-event Meeting)
• This should take place 2 – 5 weeks prior to the actual
event and will take 3 – 4 hours

• The following should be completed during this time:
• High level review of Lean concepts and what to expect
during the Kaizen week
• Refine the scope (Use SIPOC if necessary)
• Develop objectives and goals
• Determine pre-work and data collection required to
understand current state / baseline metrics
• Finalize participant list and roles (dedicated, on-call, etc)

15

SIPOC
• Definition
• Documents a process from the suppliers to customers.
• The name comes from the column headings on the form:
Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers

• Purpose
• Identify and balance competing (internal and external) customer
requirements
• Identify gaps in requirements and the process outputs or inputs
• Identify suppliers of the process inputs
• Aid in identification of data collection needs
• Establish the right metrics and improvement priorities
• Use as a tool to continuously verify customer requirements

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SIPOC
• Definition of a Process
• A series of activities that transform a set of inputs into a specific set
of outputs. Everything we do is a process.

• Components of a Process
• Inputs: Inputs are man / person, method, material,
machine,measurements, and mother nature / environment (referred
to as the “6M’s”)
• Transformation: Series of steps or tasks that change (transform)
the inputs.
• Outputs: Goods, services, or consequences

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Who is the Customer?

• Process: Description of a process that provides outputs to meet the needs (expressed or
implied) of Customers
• Input and output boundaries: Define the start and stop boundaries of the process
• Outputs: Delivered products or services that should satisfy the Customer expectations and
meet or exceed the customer requirements
• Customers: The people who receive the outputs, and those who put requirements on the
outputs, but do not receive the output

18

SIPOC Elements

2
7 How 5
What does does the
the process process What does
Who is the
expect from start? each customer
supplier of
each input? expect from
each input?
6 3 each output? 4
8 1 What are
What Inputs are
required to What is the the outputs Who is the
enable this process? from the customer
process to process? of each
occur? output?
2
How
does the
process
end?

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SIPOC Example
DEQ - Office of Compliance and Enforcement

S upplier I nputs P rocess O utput C ustomer
Inspectors Evidence Document FERA Public
of Violation 3-6
Weeks
Lab Complaints Refer Case 1-2 Final Order EPA
Months
Public Regulatory Develop News Violator
Interpretation (Issue) FEA 3-6 Release
Months
Other PEN Appeal Ref. Program
3-4
Agencies Months
Program Review Final Order 2-4 PEN Media
Weeks
HR Labor OCE
Violators Guidance

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Defining Project Objectives / Goals
• The project objectives selected need to be documented in
the charter
• An objective includes
• The goal
• Associated output (CTQ) measures
• Targets
• Timeframes (if possible)
• Metrics
• Time...what is the lead time for this process?
• Cost...how much does it cost for people and supplies?
• Quality...how much rework is there?
• Capture Voice of the Customer to better understand
improvement opportunities
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Refining Goals and Objectives
• Initially, you may not be able to define specific quantitative
objectives because you do not have the data available
• In these cases
• Set general goals and objectives (i.e. make a general statement
like “improve productivity by 10%”)
• Collect additional data and analyze it – Use best available data
• Examples of well defined goals
• Reduce the number of incomplete referrals by 40% starting Q2
2009
• Improve the first time quality to 98% of applications received by
end of Q2 2009
• 100% of permit evaluations performed within 60 days starting June
1, 2009

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Event Pre-work
• Data collection prior to the event will be driven by
previously defined goals and objectives
• Reduce incomplete referrals by 40%...Collect quality data (how
many incomplete referrals come in today?)
• Improve the first time quality to 98%... Collect quality data (what
is our current first pass yield-FPY?)
• 100% of permit evaluations performed within 60 days... How
many evaluations take longer? How long?

• Bring copies of all reports, logs, screen shots, SOP’s, etc
• If required data is not available, you may need to perform
“real-time” data collection for the weeks prior to the event

23

Finalize Participants and Determine
Roles
• Start with the “Thirds” rule of thumb –
• 1/3 of the participant work directly in the process
(SME’s)
• 1/3 of the participants are managers or supervisors in
the process
• 1/3 of the participants are “outside eyes”. These may be
customers or other external stakeholders
• Make sure the team is not heavily loaded with one
department or group. A cross-functional team that
represents the entire process is most effective

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Finalize Participants and Determine Roles
(cont)
• If the process uses support functions such as IT, HR,
accounting, legal, etc. – invite them
• Some resources will be “on-call”. This is usually driven by
their availability to give a full week.
• Keep the team size in the 10 – 14 range if possible.
• Event observers are acceptable but cannot actively
participate in the improvement event
• All team members should manage their time away as if
they are out of town. They should be dedicated to the
event.
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Key Takeaways
• Involve sponsors and stakeholders from the beginning
and get buy-in
• Build a cross functional team including customers of the
process. Review and modify team if scope changes
significantly
• Establish clear boundaries – what is in scope / out of
scope
• Understand where the “buckets of time” reside in the
process so you don’t miss opportunities
• Set clear, specific and measurable goals
• Identify and collect data to define current state and
support goals
• Communicate – Communicate - Communicate

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Questions

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How To Scope A Lean Event

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