Originally Published 5.9.2017

MAKATI CITY, Philippines - In February 2017, James Lawless earned his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification after reducing the error count in audit samples, leading to faster pull-up time which ultimately led to an annualized cost savings of ₱1,313,567.16.

"We don’t grow when things are easy. We grow when we face challenges." - James Lawless, CSSGB

For more Filipino professionals to know how James successfully pulled off his green belt project, and how it led to a whooping 1M+ yearly savings, we've conducted a one-on-one interview with Mr. Lawless himself, and all it needs is a little scrolling to gather all the details!

Go ahead! Be inspired, Be Awesome.

Q. What prompted you to take the Lean Six Sigma Workshop?
A. Since I got promoted to Quality Specialist by my previous employer, I’ve always wanted to take the Lean Six Sigma Training. It always fascinates me to see these Lean Six Sigma Practitioners. They look like very well-respected and valuable members of their organization.

Q. What Prompted you to start your project?
A. I, myself have always been keen on details and I like the mentality of working smart rather than working hard. So, I always find a way how make things easier. This led me to my Lean Six Sigma Project, which is automating our Quality Audit Sampling Tool.

Q. What was your project about?
A. My project was about Quality Audit Sampling Tool Automation. For the past 2 years, our team has been manually pulling the Weekly Audit Samples from our tools. Automation not only sped up the time spent pulling samples but also had a significant decrease in pulling invalid audit samples. 

Q. What was it like for you, starting up and executing your own project?
A. It took more than 6 months, several weekends, and holidays to finish this project. At first, I collected all the data needed to present to my Sponsors and Stakeholders of this project. It was the easy part. When it came to convincing the other teams, it was burdensome. Setting up meetings with different project members was challenging. Eventually, after several sync-ups explaining the benefits of this project, I persuaded them and got the buy-in to help.

Q. What were the results of your project? 
A. The focus of this project was to reduce the error count of audit samples extracted from our sampling tools. Before we started the projects our Process Sigma was at 1.38 with a 54.58% Defect Percentage. Additionally, the VSM Baseline was 7 hours. & 20mins. After DMAIC, we improved DPO from 54.58% to 5.88% and VSM to 5 minutes.​

"That's one reason why companies give high value to Certified Lean Six Sigma individuals. One does not just attend a program and receive his certification but has to successfully apply and show proper use of tools and methodology with actual work processes. One has to earn his Lean Six Sigma certification,"- Rex Tuozo, “The Six Sigma Guy” 

Q. What was the impact of your project on your company?
A. All Quality Specialists are now able to pull their own audit samples within 5 minutes or less. We saved 7 hours. & 15mins which had a Financial Savings of P109,463.93 a Month or P1,313,567.16 per Year.

Q. What was the impact of being a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt on you as an individual / professional?
A. Attention and Respect.
Management, colleagues, co-workers, and even off-site peers are now coming up to me whenever they face challenges in their process, reports, etc.

Q. ​What would be your message to those who are currently taking/planning to take the Green Belt Program or those who are currently conducting their own projects?
A. We don’t grow when things are easy. We grow when we face challenges.

To be certified in Lean Six Sigma, one has to complete an actual Lean Six Sigma project and apply process improvement tools, methodology, and techniques learned in class. "That's one reason why companies give high value to Certified Lean Six Sigma individuals. One does not just attend a program and receive his certification but has to successfully apply and show proper use of tools and methodology with actual work processes. One has to earn his Lean Six Sigma certification," Tuozo said. "If you attend our Lean Six Sigma programs, unlike other training providers, you get continuous support after the program, for no additional cost. You'll be assigned a Black Belt to help you complete your project," Tuozo added.

"If you attend our Six Sigma programs, unlike other training providers, you get continuous support after the program, for no additional cost. You'll be assigned a Black Belt to help you complete your project," –Rex Tuozo, “The Six Sigma Guy"

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