"Fix the Process, Not the People"
Strategic Finance
July 2006, pp. 27-33
This article shows how Medtronic, a global leader in medical technologies, has applied "Lean Sigma" to core financial processes. Week-long kaizen sessions have emerged as the preferred tool for the fast transformation of transactional business process "because it focuses on specific functional areas where change must happen quickly to gain efficiency and ultimately achieve customer satisfaction....Team members measure and time the existing process, identify the waste, dismantle the old process, and create the ideal state by implementing the new process." Accounts Payable kaizen activities have achieved the following:
- Lead-time reduction of 53% for receipt-through-payment distribution for non-P.O. invoices
- Reduction from 3 days to 1 for front-end invoice processing form mail to index;
- Fifty percent reduction in payment processing time for paper check printing process
The article also includes a case study of a 5-day kaizen event, with explanation of what occurred each day.
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