Written by Kymberly Epperson and Darlene Schlueter set out to streamline the food event registration process at UC San Diego to ensure campus compliance, food safety and higher customer satisfaction.
After research, Kymberly and Darlene found:
- Users reporting the online registration system to be complex and burdensome, impacting the customer experience.
- Big dining events, or barbecues are required to complete the same amount of steps (38) as a large scale event, like a concert or a festival, creating unnecessary steps.
- Event approvals were not meeting the 7-day deadline, causing bottlenecks in the process.
Lean Six Sigma Tools that were used throughout the project: Data Collection Plan, Process Walk, Monitor & Response Plan, Project Closure, Executive Summary, Fishbone Diagram, Root Cause Hypothesis, Pareto Chart, Implementing Improvements, Reducing Process Steps, Updates to User Experience, Project Charter, and SIPOC.
Working with their core team to identify action items and deadlines, they moved into their Improve Phase and implemented:
- Event Registration Process Improvements – Implementing the “Fastpass Track” for events and meetings with food only by eliminating 31 steps of 38, resulting in an 81.5% reduction in cycle time.
- Reduced Process Steps – By removing redundant web pages that have the same information in various locations, the average user saved 22 seconds by not clicking on those pages.
- Updated Design & Logo – Attaining a fresh new look with the help of their graphics team to help signal the process transformation to the end user.
- Updated Login Portal – Making it more user-friendly and giving it a new look.
After making improvements, they had some good results:
- Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Results: 38 Steps → 7 Steps (81% Improvement)
- Reduced the amount of late approvals by 64% resulting in four times more events meeting that 7-day deadline.
- 61% of users found the event registration process easy or somewhat easy, which is a 3.2% increase from the baseline data, 72.22% total users indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with the new design, and 66.67% of users indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the new Fastpass Track.
- Events are receiving final approval on average of 12 days before the event. The goal was 7.
Watch the 30 minute video, or read the transcript at https://goleansixsigma.com/success-story-reducing-activity-planning-lead-time-81-kymberly-epperson-darlene-schlueter/