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Process Improvement Program

Project Process

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The Process Improvement Program is part of the City of Fort Lauderdale’s FL2STAT Approach to Exponential Improvement. Its objective is to make the City of Fort Lauderdale a LEAN organization, an organization that understands what our neighbors’ value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase that value. The program focuses primarily in using process improvement tools such as LEAN (create value through a value creation process that has cero waste) and Six Sigma (improve the quality of a process by identifying and removing the causes of defects and reducing the variability) methodologies.

PIP is a citywide effort which includes internal capacity development. The program selects, trains, and certifies city employees as “LEAN Six Sigma Belts”. There are multiple levels of belts and each level has different roles to fulfill.

Yellow Belt: understand the LEAN Six Sigma philosophy, including the DMAIC (Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control) methodology. Their training covers the diverse process improvement tools and how to apply these tools to their role on a day-to-day basis. Given their knowledge, they are also able to identify process improvement opportunities for escalation to Green or Black Belts. Lastly, they are a valuable resource for project teams undertaking improving initiatives, including being a part of the project team.

Green Belt: leads Green Belt level process improvement initiatives by applying the LEAN Six Sigma's DMAIC methodology. Their training expands the knowledge of the data driven analysis techniques, the descriptive statistics, and the project management skills needed to use DMAIC to improve processes. They work to improve their functional area or departments and work in collaboration with the Black Belt in a Six Sigma improvement team.

Black Belt: masters the LEAN Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and the statistical concepts needed to accomplish Black Belt level projects. Their focus is on cost reduction and increase operational efficiencies while continuously seeking to provide value to the City’s neighbors. In addition, they mentor all the belts developing process improvement projects and provide training.

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This objective of this document is to reviews the eight phases of a process improvement project (Idea Creation, Initiation, Definition, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, and Close Out) as well as the functions and responsibilities of the different stakeholders. An overview and related documentation is available at: http://lauderlink/structural_innovation/process_improvement.htm

1. Idea Creation Phase:

Process Improvement ideas may come from the City Commission, City Manager, Assistant City Managers, Department Directors, and employees. For an idea to be considered a part of the Process Improvement Plan, the submitter must complete the Idea Brief (see Appendix 1), which is available to download from the web at: http://lauderlink/structural_innovation/process_improvement/Idea_Brief_Template.doc

All ideas are collected by Structural Innovation (SI) and are funneled to the Steering Committee. The Committee then uses the PIP Project Evaluation Matrix to evaluate the ideas and determine if the idea should be included in the Process Improvement Plan. If SI selects the idea as a potential project, the City’s Black Belt will work with the Department to assign a belt to the project. The belt then begins the Initiation Phase of the project. If the project is not selected, SI maintains the idea in the database of potential projects for the City.

2. Initiation Phase:

The goal of the Initiation Phase is for the belt to develop the preliminary Project Charter (see Appendix 2) and obtain its approval from the Project Champion. Below is an overview of all the sections of a Project Charter. However, not all sections are required to be completed during the Initiation Phase, only those marked with an asterisk (*). The remainder sections will be completed during the Project Definition Phase.

Process Improvement Project Name*: the name by which the project will be known. City Vision Direction(s) the project supports*: identify the City Vision Direction(s) that are

applicable. Strategic Goal(s) the project supports*: Identify the Strategic Goal(s) that are applicable. Commission Annual Action Plan initiative supported*: Start Date: the expected start date of the project. End Date: the expected end date of the project.

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Project Champion*: usually considered the Division or Department Director who can support and endorse the project by enabling the organizational changes needs to take place or by providing the financial requirements for the project.

Green Belt: assigned. Black Belt: assigned. Team Members*: preliminary list of participants that include the name, title, department,

and role in the project. Department*: the department will be positively affected by the implementation of the

project. Core Process: the key process is under analysis in this project. Sub-Process: the sub-process is under analysis in this project. Problem Statement: briefly describe the problem that the project would be addressing.

It is recommended that the length be no more than six lines. Project Scope*: Briefly describe what the project entails, its beginning and end, and what

is not included. Project Goals/Objectives*: clearly and briefly explain what is being obtained by the

improvement and why that is beneficial to the organization. They should be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Financial Benefits: indicate any financial benefits that will come from the project. Non-Financial Benefits: indicate any non-financial benefits that will come from this

project. Examples would be meeting regulatory requirements, reducing customer wait time, improving employee morale, etc.

Performance Measure(s): must be identified and later tracked to measure progress of the project. Initially a high level performance indicator can be identified, and as the project scope is refined, the final performance measure will be identified and tracked.

Please note that not all of the sections will need to be completed during the Initiation Phase. However, the sections not required to be completed during the Initiation Phase, will need to be completed during the Project Definition Phase. Project Charter sections required to be completed during the Initiation Phase have been marked with an asterisk (*) in the above list.

The belt will receive mentoring from the City’s Black Belt through the development of the preliminary Project Charter. Once the charter is completed, it is routed to the Structural Innovation Manager for review and approval. Lastly, the charter will be sent to the Project Champion for final review and approval.

Once final approval is obtained, the project is added to the Process Improvement Scorecard in ClearPoint by the City’s Black Belt. This strategy management software is the tool the organization will use to monitor the project through its completion.

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3. Definition Phase:

Once the preliminary Project Charter is approved, the belt will begin the work on the project with the team. The main outcomes from this phase are to develop a high-level overview of the process, through the use of process mapping tools, and to understand the needs of the process stakeholders. With all the information gathered, the preliminary Project Charter is reviewed and completed.

4. Measure Phase

The goal for this phase is to define the project performance measure, establish the data collection plan, gather data, establish the baseline, and begin monitoring this KPI if possible. The performance measure will be tracked in the project’s page in ClearPoint.

5. Analyze Phase:

In this phase, the data that was collected in the previous step is analyzed for waste root causes. Once the waste analysis is complete (transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over production, over processing, defects, and skills), then the specific LEAN tool that will be used to solve the problem is identified. LEAN tools that may be used are as follows:

5S: is an tool used to organize work spaces efficiently and effectively by identifying and storing used items, maintaining the area, and sustaining the new order

Value Stream Mapping: is a lean-management method used to analyze that the series of steps taken to develop a product or service provide value to the customer. It analyzes the current state and designs future state accordingly.

Poka Yoke: is a lean-management method that helps eliminate defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur, hence “avoiding mistakes”.

6. Improve Phase:

In this phase, the team will define the improvements needed to solve the problem, as well as an implementation work plan. To define the improvements, the team will participate in a brainstorming session to come up with potential solutions. Those solutions will then be evaluated and used to create a practical work plan (see Appendix 3). The work plan must consist

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of milestones, action items, assigned individual, start date, end date, and status. The work plan must take into consideration:

Sequencing: define the order in which the action items need to take place Associated costs to the action items: any additional costs needed to complete the

action item, such as the purchase of new equipment, consulting services, etc. Internal and external stakeholders: develop a Stakeholder Analysis (see Appendix 4)

and Communication Plan (see Appendix 5) Risk: complete the Risk Management Analysis (see Appendix 6) that considers what

could go wrong with the project (legal, budget, procurement, staffing, IT) and the associated backup plan. An additional question will be “what else?” to encourage the team to think of other potential issues.

Communication plan: define what, how, and when information is shared communicated to project champion and other stakeholders

Once the work plan is complete, the next step is to create the future state process map. This map will graphically represent how the process will look once all the solutions are put in place.

Implementation of the work plan begins to take place and the measurement of improvements is monitored. Once the performance measures shows improvement based on the defined goals, the team enters into the Control Phase.

7. Control Phase:

The main focus of this phase is to monitor the implementation of the project to ensure that the results of the improvement yield what was expected and to ensure that the organization goes through the complete transformation required to resemble the future state process map. If the results are not resulting as expected, the team will have to review the improvement work plan and adjust the solutions.

During the next twelve months, the project’s key performance measures and status will be monitored and reported monthly via the ClearPoint software by the belt. In addition, the belt will manage stakeholder communications.

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8. Closeout Phase:

For a project to be considered “closed out,” the belt is responsible for the following steps:

Complete the Project Close Out Report (see Appendix 7) and obtain sign off from the following entities, in the following order: Budget Office, Black Belt, Structural Innovation Manager, and Project Champion. At this point, the project closeout report is considered approved.

A Project Story (see Appendix 8) needs to be written up by the belt. The Project Story will consist of what the project was about (objective and scope), who was a part of the project (team members), what was accomplished (performance metrics, specific improvements, and implementation process), lessons learned through the process, and an Executive Summary. The ClearPoint Briefing Book will also need to be attached to the final Project Story.

The belt will present the process improvement project to the Executive Team at either a Monday morning CBLT meeting or FL2STAT meeting.

The Project Story will be submitted to the City Commission as an informational memo commission memo and will be uploaded into Structural Innovation’s Process Improvement Library, which is located at the following link: http://lauderlink/structural_innovation/process_improvement.htm

The last step for a Process Improvement Project is to celebrate!!!

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Appendix 1 – Idea Brief (download form here)

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Appendix 2 – Project Charter (download form here)

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Appendix 3 – Work Plan (download form here)

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Appendix 4 - Stakeholder Analysis (download form here)

Stakeholders are persons and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. Since they have influence over the project and its deliverables, a key to project success is how stakeholders are handled. Often, stakeholders have differing or conflicting objectives which will be analyzed and managed throughout the project.

In a project, key stakeholders are considered to fall within one of the following categories:

Project manager Neighbor/customer/user Performing organizations Project management team Project champion Boards and Committees Non-profits or other agencies Governing agencies – County, State, Federal Media Individual neighbors

The Stakeholder Analysis is a tool that helps to determine the stakeholders involved in a project. Understanding their needs and expectations will help define the strategy to manage their influence and involvement. Here are the steps that need to take place when conducting a Stakeholder Analysis:

1) Identify the stakeholders by name and assign a number starting with the number one and do not repeat

2) Determine stakeholder requirements 3) Identify stakeholder expectations; their expectations express what they envision as the

result of the project. 4) Identify stakeholder authority in the project (low, medium, high). Each project is

different, so the belt must define how to categorize the level of authority. As a rule of thumb, the highest ranking person in the team is considered “high” and the rest of the team should be ranked accordingly.

5) Identify stakeholder interest in the project (low, medium, high). Each project is different, so the belt must define how to categorize the level of the interest.

6) Plot their given number in the graph below based on “authority” and “interest”

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Appendix 5 – Communication Plan (download form here)

Once the Stakeholder Analysis is complete, the next step is to develop the project’s Communication Plan. The goal of the Communication Plan is to identify what information needs to be distributed, to which stakeholders, how often it needs to be communicated, by whom, and in what format. The types of information formats are:

Interactive communication: most effective method (i.e.: conversation, team huddle) Push communication: small group of participants that need to be communicated with

more frequency (i.e.: memo, email, reports, voicemail). Pull communication: least effective and recommended for a larger audience that can

obtain information at their leisure (i.e.: website)

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Appendix 6 - Risk Management Analysis (download form here)

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Appendix 7 - Project Closeout Report (download form here)

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Appendix 8 – Project Story (download form here)