Problem statement
The monthly financial reconciliation process is manual, time consuming, not detailed enough and error prone. The manual process requires investigation & explanation of any variances that occur between 6 separate datasets supplied by 3 different teams. This results in delays, overtime, and occasional missed monthly deadlines.
Objective
To simplify and error proof the end on month reporting. Reduce errors and achieve 100% compliance with end of month deadlines.
Lean Ireland consulting/training work
This project was completed by certified lean six sigma green belt (CLSSGB) candidates who undertook a customised in-house online training programme facilitated by Lean Ireland. The training involved interactive webinars, academic assignments and team-based project work within the organisation. The DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) project framework, plus a varied toolset for each phase enabled the GB lead and the cross functional team to work through the project phases. The Lean Ireland facilitator, a certified black belt, provided project mentoring on a regular basis throughout the project lifecycle. Certification was achieved by completing the two academic assignments, and presenting the completed project to a certification review board comprising organisation managers, certified green belts and the Lean Ireland black belt assessor.
The certified lean six sigma green belt (CLSSGB) training course is facilitated by Lean Ireland to ISO 13053-1 standards. Courses may contain additional content in line with client preferences. The total consultant involvement was approximately 15 days, including online training, online project mentoring and certification for a CLSSGB cohort of 12 candidates.
Detailed results of the client work
The GB team used the lean six sigma DMAIC process and toolset, in particular swimlane process mapping and Pareto charting, to
- Standardise data base templates and report formats across teams;
- Eliminate manual SQL queries;
- Reduce the movement of data between different systems;
- Automate the process of identifying exceptions;
- Reduce the hours spent on end of month reconciliations from an average of 60 hours to 25 hours monthly, and
- Save $40K annual labour hours.
The improvements were achieved principally by introducing standard templates & error proofing data input records. A workflow software application was not used in this case.