Bryon Griffin

Kaoru Ishikawa, one of the gurus of quality and the creator of the fishbone diagram once said, "Make a habit of discussing a problem on the basis of the data and respecting the facts shown by them."  Here?s a great example of why. Twenty-five years ago, the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw was brought on to be corporate council focusing on U.S. and Canadian real estate for the convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, Inc.   They won a competitive bid process and are paid a flat rate for each store opened. As with many corporations, 7-Eleven wants to grow.  They've set out to increase their footprint to 10,000 U.S. and Canadian stores by 2019 and to double that by 2027.  But there was a problem.  An internal metric showed that "deal fall-through rates" were as high as 25 percent, and that the culprit was that one in four stores pursued lacked a complete real estate deal. Starting out, the low hanging fruit was obvious - one third of the company's legal spending was on ...

For anyone that works in a data center, you know that while the building infrastructure may remain fairly static, the compute power inside doesn't. There are acquisitions, mergers and technology shifts that require migrations or data center consolidations. These efforts could take a significant amount of time to execute and produce undesirable disruption and downtime if not managed appropriately. In a recent blog post, Rackspace revealed how they've developed a migration methodology based on the 5S, Poke Yoke, and SMED principles of Lean Six Sigma that gives them a leg up on getting the deed done quickly with minimal downtime and with efficient use of labor. The use of Lean Six Sigma and the tools of 5S, Poke Yoke, and SMED aren't just for massive operations like those described by Rackspace. These principles can be applied all across the information technology space in organizations of all sizes to enhance operations and improve the bottom line. For example, I depl...

There might be a change underfoot in education.  Educational institutions are beginning to explore improvement strategies such as Lean and are experiencing impressive results.  In just two years' time, the Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) has created a Department of Continuous Improvement, initiated 150 improvement projects, reduced textbook inventory labor costs by $80,000, reduced paper timesheet submissions by 97 percent, and overhauled their batch process for paying utility bills which is saving five hours per month (1). Speaking of utility bills, officials in a Dublin City, OH school district saved more than $1 million in energy cost by applying the principles of Lean, reducing waste and increasing efficiency through conservation efforts and a well-organized business management model (2). At Singapore Management University (SMU), "The school's collective efforts have saved more than $275,000, generated $38,000 in revenue, reduced processing errors by 68 percent, and...

I know of many organizational leaders (managers, department heads, etc.) who use a gut feel to ascertain if their service-based operation is productive and running efficiently.  Sure, they may capture a few metrics, like tickets solved or time-to-complete an activity, but by and large, it's a SWAG regarding efficiency and productivity.  These same leaders will also balk at the idea of committing resources to analyze the process because they "see" no place where it could be improved.  The fact of the matter is, there is a ton of inefficiency that can be eradicated which will make a process faster, smoother, and will make downstream customers happier.  Do you know folks like this? This is where Lean Six Sigma comes into play.  A good starting point might be to capture who are the processes suppliers, what input they provide, what process is done with that input, what the output is, and who the customer would be in order to create a SIPOC diagram.  Now, dete...

Human resources staff have a keen grasp of knowing that their company's employees are their customers. Few, I've observed, along with their hiring managers act like they understand that a prospective employee is a customer, too. Because of a failure to truly recognize who the customer is along this particular value stream, a worm pit is created. A worm pit in the space of talent acquisition is an acronym describing the seven wastes in Lean.  They stand for the Waiting, Over-production, Rework, Motion, over-Processing, Inventory, and Transport of documents associated with the hiring process. There are inefficiencies in requisition management, sourcing, and in the screening and assessment of candidates, and Lean Six Sigma can be used to make substantial improvements. Here's a breakdown... Waiting - How many escalations or approvals must be obtained from getting the requisition opened to hiring the candidate? How much time is spent waiting for feedback from those parti...

People who know me, know that I put great emphasis on the customer. It's not simply about "customer service", which is often defined as ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service while performing a transaction with the customer. It goes much, much deeper. The Kano Model, named after creator Noriaki Kano, a Japanese educator, lecturer, writer and consultant in the field of quality management, gets to the heart of creating a product, service, or process that delivers the kind of customer experience that keeps the customer coming back time after time. The model's framework defines customer needs in just three categories: Dissatisfiers, Satisfiers, and Delighters. Dissatisfiers - From the customer's perspective, items in this category are the must-have's or basic requirements to ensure happiness. They are often times expected or taken for granted and when not present, can create dire consequences for the retailer. For example, if a particular ...