Driving Continuous Improvement in a Transaction-based … Materials...Driving Continuous Improvement in a Transaction-based Business. A Case Study on how Lean principles were used

Driving Continuous Improvement in a Transaction-based Business

A Case Study on how Lean principles were used to improve the delivery of Legal Services

Greg AvesianLean Transformation Leader, Orlans Group

The 3rd Annual MLC and City of Grand Rapids Lean Workshop10/3/19

Outline

Background

Business Problem

Our Approach

Results

Key Takeaways

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My Background & Experience Industries:

• Automotive• Aerospace & Defense• Government• Higher Education• Legal

Positions Held• Information Technology Leadership• Product Development• Business Consultant• Lean Transformation Leader

Education & Certifications• BS & MS University of Michigan• MBA Michigan State University• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

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Who is Orlans?

Orlans is an entrepreneurial spirited enterprise and is one of the nations largest women owned law firms. We serve the real estate, legal and financial services industries, and provide innovative legal and processing solutions to our clients.

Headquartered in Troy, MI, Orlans represents clients in 9 jurisdictions with regional operation centers in 6 states and eTitle is a nationwide real estate services firm.

We were recognized in 2017 as a Top Workplace in Michigan, Best & Brightest in Wellness winner for 2 consecutive years and recipient of the USFN Diamond award for 10 consecutive years.

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My goals for our time together

Improve your knowledge of how Lean can be applied to transaction-based processes

Share some best practices

Understand some of the technical & soft skills necessary to be successful

Continue the conversation

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Where has Lean been applied?

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Automotive

Aerospace & Defense

Pharmaceutical

Construction

Semiconductor

Government

Healthcare

Legal

Biotechnology

Chemical

Education

Financial Services

Hospitality

Logistics

Retail

Transportation

Lean in the Legal Industry

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CHICAGO LAWYER

MLC Lean in Legal Community of Practice

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We enable establishment and expansion of lean thinking at Michigan Law Firms, In- House Legal Departments at Businesses & Government entities, and Law Schools.

We do this by sharing best practices of lean implementation and continuous improvement in the Legal Industry and Legal function within organizations.

Please contact one of the following MLC members if you, or someone from your organization, are interested in getting involved with this Community of Practice: Greg Avesian – Orlans, [email protected] Drew Sanders – Honigman, [email protected]

Complexity of our Business 9 Jurisdictions: MI, MA, NH, RI, VA, MD, DC, DE, FL

100+ Financial Clients

40+ onsite Client audits each year

200+ Legal Documents prepared and filed daily

400,000+ process steps completed each month

~40+ new Client/State requirements per week

Fixed Price Legal Service w/Milestone BillingThe application of Lean to our business is critical to our success

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Our Continuous Improvement Approach We are focused on:

• Process Timeline reduction• Quality Improvement• Productivity Improvement

Lean Six Sigma training:• 57 classes, 650+ participants (1st class: 6/30/15)• All employees (President, Functional Executives, Attorneys, Paralegals,

Managers, Supervisors, Legal Processors)• Included as part of our employee onboarding process

What we are doing:• Value Stream mapping & analysis• Gemba Walks• Data Analysis & Reporting• Team Collaboration• Celebrating our Successes

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Case Study

Legal document re-work rate reduction

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Problem Statement

The re-work of Legal documents impacts our Client timelines and drives the consumption of non-value added

labor hours(attorney & support staff)

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Simple Problem to Solve?

Y = f(X)

Y = Attorney revision rateX = Variables contributing to

document revisions

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High-Level process flow

Enter data into Case

Management System

Prepare Document

Attorney Review

Continue processing

case file

Receive new case file from

Client

Revise document

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Non-Value Added Labor Cost Legal processor making necessary corrections to

the document Attorney conducting another review after

requested revisions have been implemented

# Legal Documents requiring revisions per week 100Time to revise each document .25 hoursTime to complete 2nd review of document .50 hoursTotal weekly labor hours 75Total annual labor hours 3,900

Annual labor hour impact (Illustration)

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Our “Factory”

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The “Hidden Factory”

The Hidden Factory is where the largest amount of money, time and resources are spent that are

considered “waste”.

The money spent in the Hidden Factory has the greatest negative impact on the competitiveness

and profitability of a company.

Source: Center for Organization Excellence

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What variables do you think impact document revision rates?

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Variable 1

Variable 2

Variable 3

Variable 4

Revision Rate

Variables Impacting Document Revisions

Document Complexity

Data entered into the Case Management system

Case Management system issues (Templates, Data merge)

Volume of reviews

Calculations of data fields within the document

Legal Processor creating the document

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Variables Impacting Document Revisions

Attorney reviewing the document

Inadequate work standards (attorney and support staff)

Training

Changes in Law

Changes in Client requirements

Input provided by vendors

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Revision Rate & Volume of Reviews

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Importance of Data

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Importance of Metrics in Legal

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Importance of Data & Analytics

Export transaction data from our Case Management system (“source of truth”)

Leverage Excel to analyze and summarize the data

Create trend charts & graphs to monitor our performance over time

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Our Continuous Improvement Approach

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Review Attorney revision

comments

Determine revision category

Complete Root

Cause analysis

Collaborate with cross-functional

team

Measure weekly revision

rate

Implement Corrective Action(s)

Communicate with team

Primary Document Revision Categories Real Estate Title-related

Legal Description of Property

Missing or Incorrect Data

Document Template

Processor Error

Attorney Error

Spelling

Redaction Errors26

What are some of the challenges you think we faced as we worked

to drive down the document revision rates?

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Challenges

Frustration

“Not my issue”

Desire for a “quick fix”

Insufficient standards

Cross department communication

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Challenges

Many variables impacting performance

Identifying the root cause of the revision

Assembling the appropriate team to collaborate

Organizational changes (e.g. new Attorneys)

Implementing robust corrective actions

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Our Results

Significant reductions in document revision rates have been achieved

The revision trend charts on the following slides include a total of 29,223 document reviews

People are excited about what we’ve accomplished as a team

Continuous improvement challenges remain

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Total Documents: 8,686

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Total Documents: 5,279

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Total Documents: 2,382

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Total Documents: 10,910

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Total Documents: 1,966

Reduction in Non-Value Added Labor Hours

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Improvement Summary

Reductions in:• Labor hours devoted to the preparation and

review of Legal documents

• Lead-Time to deliver Legal document to Client/Court/County

• Time to get to our next billing milestone

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Celebrating Success COO highlights during monthly All-Hands meeting President discusses during Town Hall meetings Team members create a positive “buzz” Kudos points awarded Happier Employees

Kudos awarded by our COO

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Key Takeaways Find the “Hidden Factories” in your transaction

processes

Develop & maintain robust work standards

Ensure you obtain stakeholder support

Use data & metrics to track performance

Create a positive collaboration culture to support your continuous improvement efforts

Celebrate your successes

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Questions

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Thank you for your time and let’s connect

[email protected]

linkedin.com/in/gregavesian

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