Deploying a long term Operational Excellence Strategy with participants with varied backgrounds

Company & Industry

A large managed healthcare company headquartered in the U.S. is focused on the health and well-being of every individual that they serve, empowering 1 in 10 Americans to lead healthier, more vibrant lives every day. Customers include health plans and other managed care organizations, employers, labor unions, various military and governmental agencies and third-party administrators

Background

This healthcare company was looking for ways to increase efficiency and reduce errors ensuring better service to both their health plan members and the providers they coordinate to serve their members by implementing Lean Six Sigma.

Challenge

  • They knew that classroom training would negatively impact their organization due to cost and time required for key employees to be away from their job functions, and the potential participants had a wide variance in their experience with Lean Six Sigma methodologies
  • They desired a long-term partnership to aid in implementing multiple candidates every year to establish a standardized culture of continuous improvement

Solution

  • Acuity Institute’s online Lean Six Sigma certification provided self-paced learning for their team members along with unlimited instructor support
  • The online format accommodated a faster pace for those who had more experience and a steady pace that included instructor support for those who were new to Lean Six Sigma
  • The healthcare company was now able to offer the training to a wide variety of departments and locations nationwide while managing their Lean Six Sigma training costs
  • To further ensure rapid ROI, Acuity implemented a workplace project certification requirement

Results

Over the past 9 years the program has been a tremendous success. Improvements have been seen in process efficiencies, waste reduction, and error reduction resulting in improvements in timeliness and the accuracy of decision-making.

  • Reduction/elimination of customer fines/penalties due to improved performance in timeliness or accuracy
  • Reduction/elimination of unnecessary expenses (for example, elimination of the need for postage due to a process change to email use), and
  • Reduction/elimination of unneeded staffing levels (for example, simplifying and reallocating tasks to less expensive employees) and amounts (for example, reducing the number of staff needed to achieve the desired result).