Tracy O'Rourke's articles on GoLeanSixSigma.com

AME Inspires Innovation at Their 2018 San Diego International Conference

Tracy O'Rourke

There are so many reasons why I love attending industry conferences: The Network — Meeting fascinating people who are making an impact in the world The Education — Learning more about how tools and methods are applied in different industries The Connection — Being a part of something bigger than…

How can you get executives to really understand the true value is beyond just measuring or focusing on Hard Dollar savings?

Tracy O'Rourke

Working in the banking industry, how can you get executives to really understand the true value is beyond just measuring or focusing on hard dollar? We are counting time savings but that always turns into a conversation on how we can reduce head count. It’s very important that head count is not a goal of…

This post is only available to members.

Could you share examples of Black Belt level projects?

Tracy O'Rourke

We have a black belt success story example in healthcare that you can view here. Find out how Lily Angelocci helped save $4 million dollars for UCSD, which will help this nonprofit fund more programs for students and make a difference in healthcare.

This post is only available to members.

How would safety projects and accident avoidance be calculated in savings?

Tracy O'Rourke

I would first discuss with your finance person or operations person to get a sense of the different factors that are important to your industry. Ultimately there can be both hard and soft dollar savings here. The hard dollar savings may be less injuries, and less $$ spent on employee injuries, missed workdays and disability…

This post is only available to members.

What are some specific examples of Hard Dollar savings in service industries rather than manufacturing based?

Tracy O'Rourke

Almost all of the examples listed under hard dollar savings can be applied to a service environment. What was mentioned in the webinar: Equipment or capital reduction – office space or office equipment – if you streamline processes and don’t just throw people at the problem, then you may not need to lease bigger offices…

This post is only available to members.

Lean Coaching Summit: A Forum for Building Lean Leaders

Tracy O'Rourke

Lean Frontiers and the Lean Enterprise Institute collaboratively hosted the Lean Coaching Summit in Seattle, WA this July. The event was intimate enough to make you feel like you’d met everyone but big enough to connect you to the Lean community. Attendees included: Coaches for; Executives, Management, Organizations, Lean/Problem Solving/Continuous…

How to Use “The Problem-Solver’s Toolkit”

Elisabeth Swan and Tracy O'Rourke

Are you looking for a simple way to solve problems? Would you like someone to point out what could go wrong along the way? Do you like graphics just a bit more than text? Glad you asked! As helpful as our online training is, sometimes you just want a quick…

If raw material has been received and it stays in inventory for one day before processing starts, would this be considered non-value added time?

Tracy O'Rourke

After receiving raw material from our vendor, it stays in inventory for around 1 day before any processing starts on this raw material. Is this inventory of raw material a part of non-value added time? Great Question! Unless the raw material demands the waiting before it can be used, the answer is no. But based…

This post is only available to members.

Would you create an A3 for each project?

Tracy O'Rourke

Would you create an A3 for each project? If so, would someone potentially be discussing multiple A3’s per session? Yes, absolutely! I think it would be wonderful to see an practitioner potentially working 2 problems. You can certainly coach 2 A3s one after the other, but you may need to schedule more time.

This post is only available to members.

Do you have a Success Story on how to improve certification rates or project completion times for Lean Six Sigma trainees?

Tracy O'Rourke

I read your success story on how to improve training prep time. Do you have a similar one on how to improve certification rate or project completion for Lean Six Sigma trainees? We do not have a Success Story specifically for that, but if the certification is built and owned internally by your organization, I…

This post is only available to members.