DMAIC project: Improving Work Organisation and Reducing Work Interruptions
Baseline (Define)
The project improved the efficiency of the expert team. A major problem for the team was the constant interruption of work, which contributed to a sense of inefficiency, lack of planning and a high level of work in progress. The customers from whose point of view the problem was improved were the team members. The aim of the project was to reduce the number of interrupted tasks and thereby increase efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Process performance at the beginning (Measure)
Based on the data, more than 42% of the tasks started by the team ended in an interruption, so the number of interrupted tasks was high, as expected.
Improvement measures (Analyze & Improve)
At staff level, the main root cause turned out to be differences, partly due to the individual's own practices and partly due to his or her area of responsibility.
In addition, data analyses were carried out on the reasons for interruptions at team level. Interestingly, the reasons differed from the prior assumption. It had been assumed that the main reason for interruptions was contact from the client, but the data showed that the main reason was internal meetings. Reasons due to the client were only the 7th largest cause of interruptions. The workshops also identified a range of error and lost time situations, which were taken into account when defining improvement actions for the project.
Based on the measurement results and the issues discussed in the workshops, the team decided to reduce and shorten the team's daily hours, change the team's organisation and the responsibilities of team members, introduce standardised models for receiving assignments, and develop time management at the personal level, the tools and methods of which were trained for the team.
Results (Control)
A re-measurement after the change showed that only 24% of the team's tasks ended in an interruption. In addition to the improvement in the average, the large variance seen at baseline has also been significantly reduced. There has been a significant reduction in the number of interruptions caused by meetings.
The team has been pleased with the changes made.
The team has metrics and an OCAP plan in place to monitor at regular intervals any increases in interruptions or deviations from standardised assignments and make improvements where necessary.
The main lesson learned from the project is that, in the end, small and easy-to-implement changes in approach resulted in a significant improvement in the number of interrupted tasks and, as a result, a significant increase in the number of staff, even in euro terms, freed up to carry out the basic task.
This project was one of the exercise projects in the Black Belt training, which the participant completed as part of the training and Black Belt certification.
If you are interested in learning how to improve your processes using Lean and Six Sigma, and obtain a Belt Belt certification at the same time, check out the training at the link: Black Belt training.