LEAD Awards 2018: Interview with Mark Monaghan, iQor
A Proprietary and Custom-built Lean Program
Posted on 04-25-2018, Read Time: Min
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Category: Best Global/ International Leadership Program
LEAD AWARD RANK: 7
Organization: iQor
Program: iQor's Lean Portal
Program Director: Gabor Virag, Senior Manager Lean
Email: Gabor.Virag@iqor.com
Visit: www.iqor.com
A Proprietary and Custom-built Lean Program
Our editorial team interviewed Mark Monaghan from iQor at the LEAD2018 Awards this past February. Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview.
What is the overall objective of your program?
The Lean Portal is a proprietary and custom-built leadership program on a SharePoint platform with multiple security levels that introduces and guides employees through iQor’s Lean World. The portal provides an inside view of iQor's philosophy of continuous improvement and provides assistance for all company-based Lean activities.
The Lean Portal offers a wide range information from the latest company news to a training calendar. Besides offering Lean strategy insights and knowledge, it also offers a wide range of related subjects such as deployment approaches, educational and certification opportunities, a review of current metrics and important KPIs that can impact performance and reporting. The site also identifies key Lean management personnel and their organizational structure. The portal also contains a support library with all of the materials and information needed to support iQor Lean initiatives.
Who do you impact with your program?
iQor has developed its own Lean Certification educational processes and programs that cover the key principles of Lean that distinguish it from all other quality improvement techniques. Building on knowledge, learners will explore the sources of waste that can be the prime targets for meaningful quality improvement initiatives.
iQor’s Lean Certification training program introduces learners to Value Stream Transformation and Mapping, how and when to use the X-Matrix Tool, what is the Kaizen Event Approach, the Lean Council, OPC Systems, what is and how to apply the Lean Maturity Assessment, LMI Levels and 5S principles.
What are the lessons you’ve learned this year from facilitating your program?
Lean Portal visitors are divided into three based groups:
- Lean Department consists of Lean Engineers, Lean Managers and Lean Coaches
- Leaders such as Floor Managers, Directors, Vice Presidents and up (company-wide)
- All employees have access and are free to visit the Lean Portal through QNet, iQor’s proprietary intranet portal.
The Lean Portal is an integral part of the Lean Department as the Portal makes it easy to follow up on Lean activities, events, standards, procedures and create opportunity to share best practices. The Lean Portal is also important to iQor Leaders because of transparency. Leaders are able to check where and what is happening from a Lean point of view and are able to share iQor Lean activities with clients. If employees need more information about Lean, they are able to locate and view it quickly. iQor has a Lean Education Program for all levels of employees from shop floor to management. The Portal also contains needed training materials and additional information. If employees want to participate in some development activities such as Kaizen for example, they can research program details, history, and who they can contact for further information.
How do you measure the return on investment and success of the program?
Lean Portal has a 1.5 years history now. We have an average of 450 visitors and 4,000 hits per month. Lean Portal has an important role in Product Support Services. Allowing for business reviews at all levels based on Lean Portal's Metrics page. Also, Program and Lean Managers are uploading their reports to make activities transparent. The level of continuous standardization has significantly increased this year.
Thanks to all standards available at Lean Portal, our customers meet unified outlooks at all sites, like unified Lean Posters in all languages and a Lean Wall with all Key Performance Indicators and Operation Performance Control Corners. Additionally, quality levels of projects (Kaizen Events) are higher and the Lean Maturity level has increased.
We achieved our goal to provide custom online Lean training and exams to our colleagues. Twenty-one interactive narrated Lean training modules and Lean exams in two levels are available to all staff members. In the first four months, already 90 candidates chose to take the Lean exam online.
iQor believes that our Lean program powered by our Portal will help improve product quality exponentially allowing us to eliminate waste materials and scrap thereby improving our earnings and ROI.
What lies ahead for the program and how will it continue to succeed?
Our Lean initiatives first phase was to make our portal available to all Product Support colleagues. Second phase just started with sharing the same strategies with our Customer Service (BPO) colleagues. The Lean Portal is located and accessible at QNet, our company intranet, which is available to all employees. Future steps will include online Lean training and exam opportunities extend to an advanced level. iQor is committed making its production and repair sites as efficient as possible. We are driven to exceed our clients’ expectations and requirements. Our stellar reputation in the marketplace continues to drive new brands our way making it imperative that we have systems in place that allow us to share knowledge, embrace new technologies, and refine processes.
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