Engagement Summary
Skowhegan Savings Bank reached out to the Lean East team after learning about the benefits of Lean principles. The Bank wanted training and support for an Operational Excellence initiative that would remove waste and improve the outcomes of account setup and loan initiation processes.
We began our engagement with an organizational readiness assessment. Then, we held small group sessions of a simple “Introduction to Process Excellence” training program. This focused on teaching every bank employee Lean principles and process improvement tools. We wanted the entire organization to learn about Lean thinking so every employee understood their role in process improvement.
Lean East then held a session of our Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training for select bank employees. Six of the new Skowhegan Savings Bank Green Belts were tapped to form a “Process Excellence” team for the bank. These six Green Belts worked with Lean East to hold Yellow Belt training sessions for bank employees responsible for key bank processes (opening new accounts, loan processing, etc.) The entire bank focused on its daily processes and learned to separate customer value from waste. Improvements were implemented to reduce waste and improve outcomes.
Financial results for the bank have been extraordinary despite a slowdown in the overall industry, with the bank on target to exceed its 2024 financial goals. The Process Excellence team continues to support process improvement projects for the bank. The Lean East team continues to provide Process Excellence training for new employees and high-level support for members of the Process Excellence team as they review and improve additional bank processes.
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