Workforce Management & Lean Six Sigma Design in Financial Operations

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New White Paper

Enterprise Risk Management: Proof or Promise?

There is overwhelming consensus among financial services executives that the current risk environment has become significantly more complex, dynamic, and difficult to navigate. Some new mandates are expensive and cut into margins and profitability, so there is a real motivation to not only comply but to more effectively manage the response and cost.

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AMN Healthcare: Providers Re-engineering Healthcare for Greater Efficiency

With healthcare reimbursement becoming tighter and patients expecting more from their providers, hospitals and other health systems are seeking ways to change processes and become more efficient.

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Maintaining Service Levels While Managing Bank Operational Back Office Site Consolidation

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Client: A top three U.S. bank holding company with over 80 operations centers in North America
Industry: Financial Services
Service: Workforce Management, 3P (Product, Process, Preparation), Design for LeanSigma

Challenge:

Regional item processing business unit was consolidating three sites into one as part of an M&A growth strategy

Solutions:

Optimize staffing allocation using Workforce Management
Use Product, Process, Preparation methodology to design new consolidated workflows
Use Lean Six Sigma to improve utilization of the existing facility

Results:

Achieved $1.7 million in financial benefit through improved resource management
Savings of $985,000 from workflow redesign
Over $100,000 in capital avoidance
Reduced floor space requirement by 50%
Reduced cycle time by 29%

A regional item processing business unit composed of multiple sites, and a combined volume of 367 million documents per month, was consolidating operations of three geographically close sites into a single large hub. As part of the consolidation, the surviving site would be tasked with converting from two legacy operating platforms to a single new platform, successfully merge two cultures together, put in place a single management team while maintaining 100% performance against service level agreements (SLA’s), and avoid customer impact.

Phase I – As a first step, the regional and site leadership teams knew they needed to have the right people in the right job at the right time, if they were to mitigate negative impact to the customer. As a result they leveraged Guidon’s Workforce Management approach to analyze current staffing, productivity and scheduling to identify existing and future gaps which might materialize due to the consolidation. A scheduling system was also implemented to maintain performance to all existing SLA’s.

Phase II – The second step was focused on workflow improvement and identifying new processes flows for the consolidated environment. The team began by completing a Failure Modes-Effects Analysis (FMEA), a principal Lean Sigma tool, to identify the risks and opportunities that had to be addressed in the processes for the soon-to-be consolidated site. By applying an FMEA to each major function within the existing and new workflows, the team was able to identify potential failure opportunities and put in place countermeasures to mitigate any negative impact to customers.

In addition, the team documented the current state value stream maps for each product and designed the future state value streams for the consolidate site. Working alongside Guidon consultants, the team completed a series of improvement projects – each linked to a particular component of the value stream. Each of the projects followed Guidon’s 3P (Product, Process, Preparation) methodology based on process design tools and principals from Lean and Six Sigma. The results were impressive:

Reduced travel distances by over 93%
Reduced initial floor space requirements by over 50% allowing for additional consolidation or expansion
Eliminated wasted efforts to reduce associate cycle times by 29%, gaining further productivity improvement
Improved quality by over 65%

Phase III – In the final phase of this engagement the team utilized 5S, a discipline for efficiently organizing work and workspaces to create room for supplies and equipment coming from the closing sites. The original business case specified a need to spend an additional $100,000 in capital to expand storage spaces to accommodate the incoming materials and supplies. As a result of the 5S activities, the team freed up 65% of the floor space in the existing storage areas, saving the $100,000 expense for expansion.