Page 225 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Fundamentals of Project Management

Notes
team member will be able to help out. Using the power of the team of different people
with complementary strengths helps through personal despairs.
“A major success factor in Lean Six Sigma is your ability to involve your staff. They know best
how to improve their process. You just need to motivate them to tell you.” Katherine Yap,
Operations Manager at Schenker Singapore (Pte) Ltd
KH also made clear that the amount of savings a project delivers depends on the scale of
the operations. In some projects, the benefits are not solely in terms of cost savings, but
also in achieving higher customer satisfaction and retention.

A general pitfall of Lean Six Sigma work lies usually in the scoping of project. Katherine
started off with the target of improving both the inbound and outbound processes at the
same time. After the first training session and discussions with her coach, she was convinced
to begin smaller and to tackle the outbound processes first.
Although she had to do much of the project work after office hours, she could overcome
fears and obstacles, was able to involve her initially reluctant warehouse staff and eventually
delivered results. Now the warehouse is well organised with a reduced order picking
time and even on financial savings. The best reward however, lies in the compliment she
received from her customer, “Katherine, you seem to have a brand new warehouse!”
Throughout the entire assignment, Katherine has involved her team member Teh Ngee
Hooi, Customer Service Executive at Schenker Singapore (Pte) Ltd such that now Ngee
Hooi is able to roll out her own project for improving of the inbound processes.
“Use the power of data to convince others of changes necessary to deliver better results in your
operations.” Serene Kwan, Senior Operations Executive at Schenker Singapore (Pte) Ltd

Serene’s statement after she got “volunteered” to participate in the second wave of Lean
Six Sigma was somehow like “no choice.” However, some interest was stirred up by the
impressive job, Hui Bing and Rhoger could proudly present. Contrary to her apprehension
at the beginning, she was able to master the tools. More importantly, she pulled her team
together to deliver a successful project with dramatically reduced defects through
standardisation of workflows. Her work was crowned by a striking presentation to the
management.
Now that the foundation is laid, the initial concerns and fears gave way for organisational
courage to embrace the new methodology in additional waves of improvement projects.
Reduced turnaround time for inventory, eliminated defects and significant increase in
service level are the most noticeable results for DB Schenker’s customers.

This success is made up of some simple rules for change management: start small. Trust
people with the right mindset. Be persistent. Generate credible success stories. Publish
accomplishments. Celebrate success!
Question
Analyse the case and discuss the case facts.
Source: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/every-beginning-is-difficult.html

14.7 Summary

To increase the output of your laboratory, you can either increase resources.
Project management is a series of flexible and iterative steps through which you identify
where you want to go and a reasonable way to get there.

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