Lean Process Results
Who has participated?
Nearly 600 people, representing 19 colleges/departments, have participated in lean process improvements: mostly at Cornell's Ithaca campus but also in NYC. In spring 2016, a team from the Computing & Information Science and Engineering colleges began reviewing the on-boarding process. This video shows the team in action.
What are teams celebrating?
Lean at Cornell uses the Triple Bottom Line Approach (People, Planet, and Prosperity) to examine teams' impact. Below, we offer a few examples in each impact area.
Accomplishments - People:
Workload
- Improved workflow:
e.g., reduced handoffs and eliminated redundancies - Reduced stress
- Increased value-added work
Development
- Developed people:
e.g., cross-trained staff and increased job satisfaction
Relationships
- Increased Collaboration: individual and cross-division and -college
- Improved communication and customer service
- Improved turn-around time
Accomplishments - Planet
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by ~2000 metric tons per year: e.g., reduced transportation emissions and electrical use
- Reduced landfill waste: e.g., decreased printed materials
Accomplishments – Prosperity
- $4.9M saved or repurposed +$6.5M deferred mnt
- $584K FTE cost
- Lean's added value: $4.3M
Some highlights:
- $346,000 saved on annual maintenance and utilities
- $135,526 saved on supplies, printing, and mailing expenses
- $1,787,826 savings/repurposing of FTE expenses
- $564,000 increase in revenue generation
If you want more details about Lean’s impact, take a look at the spreadsheet for Lean Process Improvements at Cornell University. You might find the spreadsheet useful in several ways:
- Get the most-current impact from Lean: you will get a sense for how many teams have used Lean, how they used it, and what the impact was (people, planet, and prosperity).
- Learn which specific teams have used Lean: the spreadsheet lists the colleges, departments, and specific units that have used Lean. Our hope is that others’ improvements inspire you to improve your own work or the work of your team(s). If you want to know more about a particular team, please write to org_dev@cornell.edu: a Lean facilitator would be happy to tell you about a team and possibly connect you with that team, if you think their process improvement(s) might benefit your work, too.