Process Improvement Lean Six Sigma Kaizen

Collaborative Approaches Produce Actionable Results

We are veteran problem solvers with comprehensive experience across all industries whose services address a vast range of organizational challenges.  Our core methodologies include:

Kaizen Events

There are many ways to design and implement process improvements. There are fewer ways to “make it stick.” Our experience has shown that the Kaizen Event model makes the most efficient use of client time and resources while firmly establishing critical new processes. The Kaizen Event model takes into consideration the way you do business, including all organization- and industry-specific regulations and requirements. By revealing the “why” behind your processes, the Kaizen Event approach ensures that all pertinent considerations are accounted for and given the required weight and value.

Lean Six Sigma

After completing an assessment and a strategic plan, we conduct a Lean Six Sigma implementation over several weeks that will:

  1. Identify process steps that can be improved
  2. Identify labor hours, times and defect rates for processes
  3. Identify potential for improvement for each process
  4. Confer with the management team
  5. Attempt to increase the quality of work while shortening cycle times
  6. Create overall streamlined processes, efficient working interactions and reduced waste

Spotlight on Solutions

Customized Lean Six Sigma - Kaizen Event Training

Effective kaizen events are often a prerequisite for a successful lean transformation. They provide the necessary momentum, organizational learning, and engagement, along with sustainable, step/function improvements. The systemic use of kaizen events establishes the technical and cultural foundation for principle-driven Kaizen — the powerful combination of kaizen events and daily kaizen activities.

Regrettably, many organizations suffer from one or more of the following event malpractice symptoms:

  1. Little or no measurable business impact
  2. Poor linkage to strategic and value-stream imperatives
  3. Unsustainable results
  4. Unfavorable employee experience
  5. Limited organizational learning and growth
  6. Insufficient foundation for daily Kaizen

This one-day workshop is designed to give participants critical insight into the principles, tools, and techniques that drive effective Kaizen events.

Identifying and developing data for key performance metrics

In business, when faced with decisions, there’s far less “Because I think or feel like…” and far more “Because I crunched the numbers and they told me to.” Business intuition is still a great thing to have, but statistics and analytics will help you hone your product sense and justify your decisions to stakeholders.

When you think about what’s important to your executive team and other functions within your company resource consumption, customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Scores, and other topics may come up. But ultimately, stakeholders care about cash. Whether it’s an indicator of how much you’re making today or how much you’re going to make in the future, monetary metrics matter.

PBSI can help you discover the top metrics to focus on within your organization.

Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause Analysis is a means to get to the bottom of a problem or unexpected event. Root cause analyses are important to undertake when your project or product is not what was expected. Root cause analyses aim at improving products or processes – quality – and they must be undertaken in systematic ways in order to be effective. The general process for undertaking a root cause analysis are:

  1. Describe the problem your company is looking at.
  2. Gather data associated with the problem.
  3. Identify potential causes for the problem.
  4. Identify which causes you will remove or change in order to prevent repeat problems.
  5. Identify solutions that will be effective in preventing repeat problems.
  6. Implement changes.
  7. Observe changes to ensure that they have effectively eliminated the problem.

There are many techniques involved in a root cause analysis.  PBSI can facilitate root cause analysis sessions with your team as part of a business process project.

Guidance through business process re-engineering - shaping the future state process

Business process re-engineering is perfect to tune up areas within the organization to improve performance.  PBSI works with organizations during the project to:

  1.  Set clear goals to achieve specific objectives.  For example, to improve turn-around-time within the laboratory.
  2. Identify every process and prioritize them.  Value stream mapping is one way to do this.
  3. Empower the people who control the processes.
  4. Capture information once and at the source.

Successful business process redesign projects are clear, concise and controlled. Include people throughout the organization to develop processes that are grounded in reality and not well-meaning but detached corporate theory.

Organization change management

PBSI’s team works collaboratively with our clients to achieve sustained results by:

  1. Accelerating peoples’ adoption, utilization, and proficiency in the new ways of working.
  2. Helping people transition through the period of change, both individually and collectively.
  3. Identifying and enabling the desired behavior changes needed to achieve results.
  4. Helping our clients build their internal change management capabilities.

Project Management during implementation phase of new processes.

PBSI provides overall coordination and management of all aspects of the planning and implementation processes and can act as the client’s representative in leading the project team. Early involvement in a project offers our clients the greatest opportunity to most effectively control cost, schedule, and quality. PBSI will also assist the client with risk and issue management as well as implement a process that manages on-going change by working with project stake holders during the strategic development of a project.