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Celebrating Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green Belt Graduates

On November 24, Operational Excellence hosted its second ceremony event at the Performance Theatre in The Nest to celebrate our most recent Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green Belt graduates, who completed a rigorous program to become officially certified as Lean Six Sigma practitioners.

Continuous Improvement Community of Practice on December 1: Advancing career through Lean Six Sigma, reviewing 14 principles of Lean

In our recent CoP session, Sean Zheng, who was recently promoted to Sub-Head in Stores, Municipal Services within UBC Facilities, shared how advancing his knowledge of Lean Six Sigma helped advance his career, and participants had an opportunity to review the 14 principles of Lean in a UBC context.

December 2022: Quarterly update on UBC’s progress with Lean Six Sigma training

As of December 2022, a total of 750 certifications have been issued through the program and many Lean Six Sigma practitioners are currently delivering continuous improvement projects across UBC. Click through to view your faculty or unit’s progress with Lean Six Sigma completion.

Delivering Operational Improvement roadmaps for UBC HR, IT and Finance

Funded and endorsed by the President’s Executive Management Team, this project supports UBC’s use of UniForum data across UBC IT, Finance, and HR to identify, prioritize, and pursue improvement opportunities in collaboration with functional leaders, service delivery teams, and faculties.

Pavan Khiani and Shijie Yu join Operational Excellence as Data Analysts

Pavan Khiani is in his fourth year at UBC, majoring in Computing Science and Business, while Shijie Yu is pursuing his Master’s degree in Data Analytics at UBC Sauder School of Business.

Operational Excellence presenting at upcoming UBC Change and Transition CoP

In the upcoming session, Alex Fiuza, Service Excellence Transformation (SET) Project Senior Manager will share how the Operational Excellence team can support you to build a culture of continuous improvement. 

Helen Shen

Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Envisio drop-in sessions

To support the VPFO community in providing quarterly updates in Envisio, VPFO’s strategic & business planning tool, Operational Excellence will be offering online, 30-minute drop-in sessions throughout October and November.

Helen Shen joins Operational Excellence as Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Leveraging her robust experience in continuous improvement and problem solving, in addition to her passion for driving efficiency and collaboration, Helen will play a key role in enhancing and delivering continuous improvement projects across UBC.

Save the Date: Continuous Improvement Community of Practice event

Open to all Lean Six Sigma Yellow, Green, and Black Belt practitioners at UBC, the second CoP event will be held online on Thursday, December 1, 2022. Hear from Sean Zheng, a Yellow Belt graduate who was recently promoted to Sub-Head in Stores, Municipal Services within UBC Facilities, on how advancing his knowledge in Continuous Improvement helped advance his career.

Join us in the second Lean Six Sigma celebration event on November 24

Operational Excellence is pleased to announce that the second Lean Six Sigma celebration event will be held on November 24, 2022. This is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our Yellow and Green Belts and recognize their commitment to driving continuous improvement at UBC.  

September 2022: Quarterly update on UBC’s progress with Lean Six Sigma Training

As of September 2022, a total of 704 certifications has been issued through the program and many Lean Six Sigma practitioners are currently delivering continuous improvement projects across UBC. Click through to view your faculty or unit’s progress with Lean Six Sigma completion.

Implementing Envisio for VPFO strategic and business plans

As of September, every department in the VPFO has entered their business plan into Envisio. This is the beginning of enhanced alignment of business objectives with the VPFO Strategic Plan, up-to-date progress updates, and better visibility of alignment with stakeholder and strategic objectives.  

Launching a Benefits Realization Management Program for UBC Planon

As part of an effort to efficiently manage results and drive continuous improvement following the implementation of the Planon, UBC’s Enterprise Maintenance Management System (EMMS), Operational Excellence’s Business Intelligence Team recently launched the EMMS Benefits Realization Management (BRM) program in UBC Facilities, Chemistry Stores, and Safety & Risk Services. 

New Lean Six Sigma toolkits & templates

Operational Excellence has created two additional vaults that contain helpful resources to guide you through your Lean Six Sigma and process improvement initiatives. The toolkits and templates on the Operational Excellence website have also been reorganized for better accessibility and clarity.

Facilities’ Stores team applying Lean Six Sigma to reduce order pick time

Sean Zheng, a Store Operator from Municipal Services within UBC Facilities and Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt graduate, recently implemented a simple yet effective process improvement that resulted in a 50% decrease in average custodial order pick time.

Launching the Lean Six Sigma Community of Practice (CoP)

Operational Excellence is launching a Community of Practice (CoP) for Lean Six Sigma practitioners across UBC through its first community meeting, which will begin with a speech from Karamjeet Heer, Interim Vice-President, Finance. 

June Update: UBC’s progress with Lean Six Sigma Training

Since our last update in March, Operational Excellence has coached one additional cohort of managers and leaders through the Sponsor Leadership Training, and two cohorts of staff through yellow belt training.

Operational Excellence capturing over 150 continuous improvement projects in the project pipeline

Operational Excellence has captured 156 projects in our project pipeline, in addition to 57 yellow belt and 8 green belt projects delivered as part of the Lean Six Sigma training program. On June 6, three projects from Facilities and Financial Operations within VPFO received approval from the project prioritization steering committee to begin.

Operational Excellence celebrates Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Graduates in inaugural celebration event

On May 25, Operational Excellence hosted its first ceremony event at the Great Hall North to celebrate the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt graduates’ achievements and hard work. The graduates’ continuous improvement projects were hung up on the wall for display, offering the opportunity to show how they’ve applied the new tools at work and learn about each other’s projects.

Change Management toolkit available

Change management consists of strategies and activities designed to support people as they transition through change. The UBC Human Resources Organizational Change and Transition team offers information, tools, and support on change management.

Lubna Shawwa

Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Delivering continuous improvement projects for the university

There are currently 126 continuous improvement projects captured in the pipeline and 60% of these projects have been completed or are in progress. For details on the types of projects being submitted and their status, visit the Operational Excellence website. 

Introducing the Continuous Improvement Community of Practice (CoP)

Operational Excellence is currently building a Community of Practice for Lean Six Sigma graduates to connect and exchange knowledge and best practices. Learn more about the CoP and how it helps promote a UBC-wide continuous improvement culture.

Update on UBC’s progress with Lean Six Sigma Training

Since launching Lean Six Sigma training last year, Operational Excellence has coached three cohorts of staff through yellow belt training and one cohort through green belt training. View a detailed breakdown of program participants.

Lubna Shawwa joins Operational Excellence as Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Leveraging her robust experience in continuous improvement and problem solving, in addition to her passion for driving efficiency and collaboration, Lubna will play a key role in enhancing and delivering continuous improvement projects across UBC.

How does Operational Excellence measure success? 

In July 2021, we began to roll out Lean Six Sigma White Belt training across the VPFO portfolio. Now that the tools and knowledge to support and lead successful continuous improvement projects are beginning to spread — how do we measure our success?  In Operational Excellence, we measure success through Benefits Realization Management (BRM).