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Six Sigma, created by the Motorola Corporation, is a five-step methodology used to understand customer requirements and to map, analyze, measure and improve processes in order to deliver 99.9997% defect-free products and services, improve cycle time and eliminate non-value added activities.
More information Glossary of TermsA Staffing Journey to Become the Best in Class Using Transactional Lean
Kelly OCG is a separate entity but related to Kelly Services, one of the world's biggest recruitment agencies. In this taster article Zachary writes clearly about the method to improve staffing...
Transactional Lean: A Staffing Journey to Become the Best In Class
We are most familiar with “Lean Manufacturing” as introduced by Toyota to improve the manufacturing of products. It is easy to understand its use to reduce waste, increase quality and improve production. GE Healthcare wanted to know if this approach could improve a transaction-based service operation like staffing.
Introducing Transactional Lean
GE Healthcare (GEHC) and the RPO practice of Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group (KellyOCG) have partnered on staffing solutions since 1999. In 2006 the relationship was at a fulcrum facing increasing hiring volume and heightened compliance requirements from U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). More and more staff was needed to combat these challenges, which added more and more cost to the Staffing budget. Something had to change. The GEHC U.S. Staffing Manager proposed using Lean, which worked so well in other parts of the business, to the staffing process to create efficiencies, improve performance and generate cost savings.
A team of the above companies created a value stream map (VSM) of the current staffing process. The VSM visually depicted areas of low quality output to target as Kaizen improvement opportunities. But, before anything could be set in place, a fundamental culture change had to occur.
5S
To initiate the required culture shift a Lean principle, 5S, was introduced as the foundation on which all improvements would build. The five “S” are:
• Sort – separation of necessary items from unnecessary items
• Set In Order – arrange items according to how they will be used
• Shine – maintain work area for sorted and set in order items
• Standardize – ensure sort, set in order and shine are consistently followed
• Sustain – maintain and improve sort, set in order, shine and standardize
5S was first applied to the physical environment, eliminating unneeded storage and files. While there was some initial concern: everyone wanted to know how all of this cleaning was helping. It soon became evident the discipline to sustain 5S was necessary to sustain a change in the Staffing culture to one of continuously improving.
The Lean Journey
Following the VSM and 5S, the staffing team focused on the Kaizen opportunities. Initially, the team led and participated in more than 32 efforts to standardize processes and improve quality. Some early examples were:
• Created application instructions
• Standardized the initial phone screening of candidates
• Created a compliant process for documenting search strings
• Standardized hiring manager call for newly posted positions
• Created a Staffing Quick Reference Guide for Hiring Managers
• Documented the employee referral process
• Creating a checklist for offer compliance (see chart for results)
• Defined compliant candidate disposition codes to use in the Applicant Tracking System
• Instituted a Kanban for offer letters
The Impact
Staffing continued to improve instituting visual management practices to capture performance and adopting better process controls with internal audits. With the Lean improvements in place, Staffing began to act more consistently. Defects are on the decline, and the quality of service continues to improve for the customer. For the first time vacations, absences, and peaks in hiring volume are covered without disrupting customer service. The standards of excellence and defined processes also allow new team members to more easily learn their role and integrate into the team.
The Journey Continues
In September 2007, the team created a second VSM revealing a more simplified staffing process. While we had reduced the number of process steps, we were not close to the end of our journey. Another 26 significant opportunities for improvement were uncovered!
Recognizing the never-ending opportunity for process improvement, the OCG RPO team committed a new role, Process Leader, to champion the lean culture at GE Healthcare. The lean journey continues as it truly is a journey with no real start and end, but becomes a way of life and work! We look forward to continuing to recognize opportunities to improve and be more efficient still as well as more quickly identify and resolve deftest within the process.
Great thanks to Zachary Misko Global Director from Kelly OCG, for further information about Transactional Lean contact Zachary by telephone: +(001) 414-815-1822.
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