PI Projects

Process Improvement Projects

We lead, support, and advise on all aspects of delivering process improvement (PI) projects, including facilitation, coaching and other project support, and project design and scoping. We employ the DMAIC framework – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) to ensure we deliver successful projects that have included change management and communication components.

Typically, our projects deliver significant returns on investment in the form of revenue enhancement, cost savings, and other benefits, such as improved morale, team dynamics, and client satisfaction.

Baseline assessments provide a good starting point, for they give us a critical reference point for assessing changes and impact, establish a basis for comparing the situation before and after process improvement work, and for making inferences as to the effectiveness of a potential project. Process mapping can also be an effective way to begin a project. Through a facilitated discussion, participants in a workshop reach consensus on process scope and identify the major steps in a process as well as the tasks, activities, and decision points within each step. This enables a team to immediately identify areas for improvement, determine next steps, and establish near and longer term priorities.

A particularly effective methodology employed by the legal profession is the Kaizen approach, an alternative methodology that uses a focused workshop technique. We follow the DMAIC steps but compress all project activities into a short period of time. A highly skilled and experienced facilitator is critical, as is a properly scoped project for this accelerated approach, which allows us to complete a project in 4-6 months. Certain aspects of particular processes, such as those embedded within or parallel to larger processes lend themselves particularly well to this treatment.

SAMPLE PROJECT/KAIZEN PLAN

Project Planning
  • Select Steering Committee, Sponsors, Team, Team Leader
  • Logistics and scheduling
  • Plan and complete work in advance of kickoff
Define - Project Kickoff
  • Project Charter
  • IPO Diagram
  • Process mapping
  • Issue diagram
  • Data gathering plan
  • Define Phase Gate Review
Measure - Workshop 1: Current State
  • Review all data collected by team
  • Create list of key “undesirable effects”
  • End-of-day Measure Phase Gate Review
Analyze - Workshop 2: Focus Areas
  • Determine root causes – Fishbone diagrams
  • Identify areas of highest leverage
  • End-of-day Analyze Phase Gate Review
Improve - Workshop 3: Solutions
  • Generate solutions and alternatives
  • Select solutions
  • Develop solutions
  • Plan pilots
  • Preliminary Improve Phase Gate Review for approval of pilot plans
Improve, Control - Post And Final Workshops
  • Conduct pilots
  • After Action Reviews
  • Implementation Plan
  • Improve Phase Gate review
  • Control design
  • Control Phase Gate Review
<h4 class="light-header">Practice-specific</h4><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><ul style="color:#fff; margin-bottom:20px;"><li>AA Plans</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Class actions </li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>E-Data / Exceptions</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>OFCCP Audit </li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Private M&As</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Single plaintiff discrimination</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Trademark registration</li></ul><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><h4 class="light-header">Business</h4><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><ul style="color:#fff;"><li>Billing</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Collections</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Document management</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Employee onboarding </li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Events</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Facilities management </li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Intake/new client </li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Lateral onboarding and integration</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Responses to requests for proposals and information</li><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><li>Staffing</li></ul>

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