Quick Glance Case Study: Training & Delivery Efficiency

“The new Lean process will ensure employees receive the correct training – on time and within budget. This will ultimately support our desire to deliver the very best customer experience”

After completing a ChangeWise Lean Practitioner training course, one candidate submitted the following work-place project to gain their qualification to LCS Level 1c.

The Business Challenge

The identification and delivery of training needs was complex and fragmented. Various partners were used to deploy training, often with varying approaches. This resulted in inconsistent role definitions, differing levels of requisite qualifications across common roles, no consistent approach for the sourcing of training providers and scheduling of trainee attendance, and no standard process for ensuring training was up to date and compliant.

This often led to employee conflict, customer complaints, significant duplication of effort and increased risk of audit issues.

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

To address the issues, an end-to-end Lean review took place.

Key people involved from client site

Representatives from the Training and Delivery Team, including members of the SLT

Lean Methodology Employed

DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analise, Improve, Control)

The candidate completed a full Lean review of the end-to-end current state process.

Photo by Joshua Eckstein on Unsplash

Various Lean methodologies were employed, specifically Voice of Customer Data, Critical To Quality (CTQ) Analysis, SIPOC, Value Stream Mapping, Value and Non-Value Add Analysis, 7 Wastes and 7 Service Wastes, Gap Analysis, Root Cause Analysis.

Key Current State Findings

Using the Lean Waste Analysis technique, various wastes were identified, including:

Motion

• Excess motion involved in contacting various training providers

Defects

• Due to having 5 matrices, each with inconsistencies, there was potential for a team member in one area to be more highly skilled than in another area which may lead to processing errors. This was intensified through the use of different providers for the same training; staff were not trained to the same standard and variable training costs existed depending on provider used.
• Job roles were not completed consistently, this variation led to staff conflict and confusion regarding which training was compulsory or optional. There was also a potential impact on customer experience.
• No trigger to inform training and delivery team when training was due, potentially impacting customer experience.
• No clarity confirming which training was mandatory/optional

Skills Talent

• Some of the training on one matrix may not be available on another matrix, meaning skill levels can vary across the delivery route. This could also mean partners are paying for a more skilled workforce than they require. Losing skills was also a possibility through poaching or leaving if opportunities for development or opportunities of progression were not available within the team.

Waiting

• Where providers stipulate a minimum attendance for courses, teams spent time waiting until they had enough team members to attend a training course.
• No information regarding how training is delivered or the duration, which makes it challenging for line managers releasing candidates from roles and planning for cover.

Benefits and Outcomes

Brainstorming and root cause analysis methods were used to better understand the issues within training. Various Lean techniques were applied, enabling the team to achieve some quick, simple wins:

• Creation of a single Job Role Matrix to ensure consistent training approach for each role; this removed employee confusion and skills variation.
• Trigger to inform training and delivery team when training is due; ensures skill sets are up to date and customer experience not impacted
• Consistency in training by role to ensure customer experience is consistent
• Mandatory and Optional training confirmed
• All team members moved to a single matrix (enabling Training & Delivery Team to easily identify where we have strong skills or where we may need to improve as a team). It also allows us to easily cross audit each other to show we have a consistent and controlled process.
• One team member organising training and the matrix, rather than a team member at each partner, reducing costs and the likelihood of defects.
• Book training with one training provider. This ensures a common approach, reduces wait times as courses are filled more efficiently, simplifies the employee training experience and ensures fairness, along with reducing costs through improved leverage

In Summary

Having a single, common approach to skills assessment, training and development, based on a single, common strategy, collectively agreed by the partners, has enabled significant financial, risk, employee and customer wins.

Interested in looking at how Lean can help with your training and delivery needs? Contact us at info@changewise.co.uk and let’s talk about how we can help.

ChangeWise believes employee engagement is the foundation for successful Change. Training and coaching your people to use simple continuous improvement techniques will enable your organisation to continuously adapt and stay ahead in a constantly changing and challenging environment.

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