Lean Six Sigma in MIDAS

1
Lean Six Sigma in MIDAS
2
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Defined

• Lean Six Sigma is a recognized industry best
  practice for business improvement which focuses
  on increasing the speed and quality of a process
• It is comprised of phases that allow processes to
  be defined, measured, analyzed, improved, and
  controlled
• What makes LSS different is
• Highly Structured Approach
• Driven by Quantitative Measurements
• Process Improvements Developed are Significant
• The purpose of using LSS is to identify process
  efficiencies

Lean Enhances efficiency by eliminating waste
Six Sigma Improves quality by reducing
variation eliminating "defects"
Lean Six Sigma Methodology
Control
Improve
Analyze
Measure
Define

• Define Objective

• Collect Data

• Analyze Data

• Control Change

• Improve Processes

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LSS Role in MIDAS

• MIDAS Program is using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to
  evaluate business processes to increase
  productivity and reduce costs while maintaining
  or improving the quality of service and
  responsiveness to our customers
• FSA is identifying business processes for
  improvement and conduct LSS Projects (Business
  Process Improvement) based on
• Document current and future enterprise wide
  business processes for delivering services to
  customers (Enterprise Business Process
  Improvement implementation)
• Identify Quick Hit projects that require
• Minimal IT solution efforts
• Minimal effort to implement a form/procedure/polic
  y change
• In other words, a Quick Hit project could be
  implemented in a very short period of time (0-6
  weeks)
• Improvement opportunities identified by the FSA
  County Service Centers
• Identify MIDAS requirements as input to the MIDAS
  acquisition effort

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LSS Past Efforts

• In 2008, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) captured
  its current business processes using the Lean Six
  Sigma methodology.
• The effort included visits to FSA county offices
  throughout the country
• Top five farm benefit programs were looked at for
  this effort, along with common processes
  (examples, eligibility, POA, SCIMS etc.)
• Captured pain points and/or recommendations,
  along with requirements for MIDAS system
• Developed to-be business processes from the
  captured as- is processes and pain point and/or
  recommendations

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LSS Past Efforts - Site Visit Summary

• Total of 5 cycles completed plus the initial
  pilot site visit (Jan Sep 2008)
• Site Visits to 12 States, 15 States participated,
  5 USDA regions covered
• Site Visit to 12 Service Centers with 140 Service
  Centers participated
• Top 5 programs covered, representing 95 of all
  Farm Programs ( of Transactions and Spent)
• Common processes that affects all Programs also
  covered (Eligibility, Acreage reporting, Recons,
  Sig. Auth/POA etc.)
• LSS methodology used to document as-is processes
  and to gather pain points (issues) and
  recommendations from county staff
• 2200 pain points 900 recommendations were
  elicited
• actual number of pain points and
  recommendations elicited, before consolidation
  and/or removing duplicates

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Some Pictures from LSS Site Visits
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Results from LSS Site Visits
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Quick Hit Projects Completed so far

• Reduce redundancy and time to fill the 770
  checklist (savings of 815,552/yr)
• Reduce compliance errors associated with writing
  By or For during signing process (savings of
  1,699,544/yr)
• Signature Authority Reduce time and errors for
  FSA staff to make legal determinations (savings
  of 8,041,994/yr)
• Combined savings of 10,556,190/yr
• (Combination of soft/hard savings)

• Note
• Hard savings are the actual dollar savings that
  can be tracked by the accountants (i.e. reduction
  in budget)
• Soft savings are typically time savings that
  dont result in budget reductions. They are
  harder to measure directlyother examples include
  improved job satisfaction, lower turnover, less
  absenteeism, etc.

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LSS - Current Efforts

• Supporting 3 business functional teams
• MAL (Initial scope Loan origination)
• Common Process (Customer data, eligibility,
  fiduciary)
• Common Land (Farm records, Acreage reporting,
  GIS)
• Primary focus is to analyze current business
  processes and policies
• Identify and implement process improvements
• Assisting FSA business teams in supporting the
  system Integrator

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LSS Future Efforts

• Process Improvement activities using DMAIC
• Review/approve functional requirements of
  Workflows and Process Models
• Support Farm Programs, transition and management
• Part of POC solution testing at selected counties
• Close loop on As Is by addressing end user
  concerns.
• Key Organizational Change Management Resource
• Conduit for FSA and SI communications

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LSS - Summary

• Primary objective is to ensure business processes
  and policies are simplified and standardized
  before automating
• MIDAS is not just IT it includes business
  process improvements
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement,
  focusing on customers (internal and external)