Forum - May 2011

Do you find that your organiza- tion continually is looking for additional resources to com- plete required tasks? Is it ruly a resource issue, or are you wasting valuable time and human resources doing non-value-added work for your members? The staff at NACE International, a Houston-based international technical society for corrosion professionals, faced these same questions and decided to use the Lean Sigma approach to find new ways to reduce waste in their processes while improving customer satisfaction.

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What is Lean Sigma?

Lean Sigma is a philosophy focused on helping businesses improve processes and streamline operations by employing team-based methods to identify and eliminate waste and non-value-added activities, and, as a result, deliver high-quality products or services to the customer in a timely manner.

NACE implemented this transforma-
tion with a clear set of goals in mind.
The goals for the implementation of the
Lean Sigma program included:
• Optimize workflow by eliminating
redundancies, unnecessary steps and
waste.

• Reduce employee stress caused by inefficient processes.

• Produce a future state for sustainable and manageable growth.

NACE Case Study
NACE used a disciplined transformation
approach to identify opportunities in
its processes. Following a planning ses-
sion with the executive leadership team
where Lean Sigma concepts were intro-
duced, an initial project was selected.
A team of individuals familiar with
the selected process, along with both
internal suppliers and customers, were
identified to complete a value stream
analysis of NACE International’s proce-
dures for setting up conferences. The
three-day value stream analysis resulted
in a “rapid improvement plan” that
identified opportunities for elimination
of waste.

by implementing Lean Sigma concepts in other areas of the organization, specifically the education and first service departments. The existing manual process for adding a new course was analyzed, including steps such as checking and creating contacts, registering students and applying complimentary memberships. The existing procedures required four hours per course. After identifying the waste in this process using Lean Sigma techniques and making the changes identified in the lean event, the current process now takes 1. 5 hours per course. This resulted in significant annual savings, transforming the original manual process of 1,700 hours to 637 hours in the new system. The identified savings is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of the education and first service department staff.