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Celebrating Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green Belt graduates across UBC on November 30, 2023

On November 30, the Project Management Office hosted its biannual ceremony at the Performance Theatre in the AMS Student 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. The graduates’ continuous improvement projects were displayed on […]

UBCO Celebrates its Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Graduates

On November 21 2023, UBCO celebrated its new Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt graduates. Our Yellow Belt graduates completed a rigorous program to become officially certified as Lean Six Sigma practitioners, playing an integral part in shifting our culture to develop and strengthen our workforce to shape UBC’s next century.

Save the Date: Continuous Improvement Community of Practice event on November 8, 2023

Improve your Lean knowledge by learning some of the key principles of the Shingo Prize of Operational Excellence and connect with fellow Lean Six Sigma practitioners at the upcoming Continuous Improvement Community of Practice (CoP).

Nikki Reiter

Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Betty Han

Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Nikki Reiter and Betty Han join the VPFO Project Management Office as Continuous Improvement Program Manager

Nikki joins the VPFO Project Management Office from the Integrated Renewal Program (IRP) – Student, where she served as Acting Associate Director, Transformation & Change Management leading a team of change management specialists to support UBC’s transition to Workday Student. Betty joined UBC in 2022 as a Senior Change Management Specialist (Community Engagement Partner) with the Integrated Renewal Program – Student.

Quarterly Update as of June 2023: Lean Six Sigma progress across UBC

We partner with UBC’s Sauder School of Business to deliver Lean Six Sigma training for beginners, seasoned professionals, and leaders at UBC. As of June 2023, a total of 844 certifications have been issued through the program and many Lean Six Sigma practitioners are currently delivering continuous improvement projects across UBC.

Leveraging Smartsheet for project planning and tracking

VPFO Project Management Office uses Smartsheet, a modern project and work management tool, to manage project plans, track deliverables and report on key project milestones. Safety and Risk Services (SRS) within the VPFO has also recently embraced these tools to empower its team members in project delivery.

Save the Date: Continuous Improvement Community of Practice event on July 26, 2023

Improve your Lean knowledge by learning some of the key principles of the Shingo Prize of Operational Excellence and connect with fellow Lean Six Sigma practitioners at the upcoming Continuous Improvement Community of Practice (CoP).

Realigning Operational Excellence to Support Key Initiatives for the VPFO and UBC

The VPFO Senior Leadership Team has been working together to review, simplify, and prioritize the projects in our portfolio’s Strategic Plan. To enable key projects for the VPFO and UBC, we’re realigning some of our key resources.

Celebrating Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green Belt graduates across UBC on June 1

On June 1, Operational Excellence hosted its biannual 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. 

New resource: Project Prioritization and Change Management Matrices

VPFO Project Management Office has created a new template designed to assess and prioritize the delivery of up to three different projects, in alignment with our project prioritization process.

Keep track with our projects through the Project Portfolio Management Dashboard

The VPFO Project Management team uses a project portfolio management (PPM) tool to help with the intake, prioritization, selection and management of continuous improvement projects at UBC. Click through to see the dashboard.

Getting ready for UniForum: Support resources for participants available

UBC is getting ready to participate for the fifth time in the UniForum benchmarking program. If you’ve been contacted to act as a Primary Contact or Respondent, thank you for your support of this important initiative! If you are a participant in UniForum, we have prepared some key information to help you prepare.

UBC launches fifth year of the UniForum program

This year we are launching year 5 of the program, and from May 29 to June 30 we will be collecting data relating to all professional staff at UBC, to better understand the types of activities they perform on a daily basis. Services include Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology (IT), Facilities Management, External Engagement, Research Administration, Student Support, and Teaching Development, Governance, General Administration, Library, Teach Administration, Research Facilities Support, and Complementary Activities.   

Quarterly Update: Lean Six Sigma progress across UBC as of March 2023

As of March 2023, a total of 792 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.

VPFO Communications & Engagement team completes Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification 

The four members of VPFO Communications & Engagement team have a long-demonstrated passion for learning and applying new skills. The team is now better equipped to help UBC achieve its process improvement goals with Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification from the UBC Sauder School of Business

Identifying, prioritizing and pursuing improvement opportunities across UBC HR, IT and Finance

In November 2022, we mentioned receiving funding and endorsement from President’s Executive Management Team to deliver operational improvement roadmaps for UBC HR, IT and Finance in partnership with Nous Group (Nous) and Cubane Consulting (Cubane), as part of an effort to drive UBC’s vision of service transformation forward. Learn more about some of the identified initiatives within each function.

Save the Date: Continuous Improvement Community of Practice event on April 20

Improve your Lean knowledge by learning some of the key principles of the Shingo Prize of Operational Excellence at the third Continuous Improvement CoP, organized by Operational Excellence on April 20, 2023.

Join us and our UBC Lean Six Sigma graduates in the celebration event on June 1

Operational Excellence is pleased to announce that the third Lean Six Sigma celebration event will be held on June 1, 2023. This is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our Yellow and Green Belts and recognize their commitment to driving continuous improvement at UBC.

New project kick-off template available in the Project Management Tool Vault

Operational Excellence has created a new template designed to help project managers accelerate their project kick-off and align Steering Committee and project team members towards the same goals and expectations. Access the Project Kick-off template, in addition to many other helpful resources, on the Project Management Tool Vault page. 

Welcome Frank Laezza!

Today marks the official start of Frank Laezza’s tenure with UBC as our new Vice-President Finance & Operations. As a strong believer in connected leadership, Frank is looking forward to working with the VPFO team of 1400+ people in the oversight of UBC’s core financial, facilities, and safety functions, across both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

Finance & HR IRP Benefits Realization Management to cease monthly reporting in April 2023  

Since 2020, Integrated Renewal Program’s Benefits Realization Management (IRP BRM) has been providing visibility into UBC’s journey towards achieving the benefits of implementing Workday HR and Finance. Now in its third year and with the current fiscal year coming to a close, IRP BRM will wind down and cease monthly tracking and reporting at end of FY22/23.

Reducing benefit-related support request volume through Lean Six Sigma

Liam Murphy is a Knowledge and Training Analyst with UBC’s Integrated Service Centre (ISC). Applying his knowledge of Lean Six Sigma, Liam implemented updates to several Workday training courses that contributed towards a 40% decrease in the volume of benefit-related support requests over the 12-month period from December 2021 to December 2022.

Continuing to measure your Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt project

Now that you have submitted your Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt report for your certification, you are encouraged to monitor the results that you have set in your goals on a quarterly basis. Operational Excellence has created a BRM SharePoint site to post the tracking of your results. Your results are due on April 15, 2023 for the reporting period of January 1–March 31, 2023.