Lean Six Sigma Series No.4: Tips for a Successful Lean Six Sigma Deployment

Whitehall alumni Christeen Cereno spoke at the 1st Home Credit Philippines Lean Six Sigma Week. Christeen shared valuable insights on successfully deploying Lean Six Sigma. Present during the event are the newly certified Yellow Belts, Green Belts, process improvement team members, sponsors, and top executives.   

Start your Lean Six Sigma Journey and Finish Strong

We sat down with Christeen Cereno, Home Credit Philippines Lean Program Manager, and asked her reflections in deploying Lean Six Sigma.

Why did you embark on the program? 

With the rapid advancement of information and consumer technology, the process has arguably become important and complicated as Home Credit aims to be one of the forerunners in the country. Working along with HR for a couple of years we came up to an idea of nurturing homegrown experts that will help us in ensuring that our processes have the quality, efficiency, and reliability that doesn’t only make our customer happy but also enable agility as we adapt to the fast-changing market.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? 

Rallying for support was an early challenge since the program was new back then. Overcoming this wasn’t easy, we as leaders have to have a clear vision and execution plan that we can confidently sell to our sponsors and that we can confidently execute. Thanks to Blanka Richtar (then Head of PMO, and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt) for being such a guiding light as we go through the process.

Home Credit PH newly certified Green Belts at the awarding ceremony of the 1st Lean Six Sigma Week. CEO Annica Witschard and project sponsors witnessed the awarding ceremony held on August 22, 2019, at the Home Credit PH Corporate Office in BGC, Taguig City.  

What did you do differently in Home Credit that led to the success of the Lean Six Sigma deployment? 

Everything was a conscious decision that aims to challenge the norm and make a difference. We performed the due diligence in selecting and prioritizing the projects. We wanted to make sure that we have a good start when we deploy the lean six sigma program. We partnered with HR on empowering the candidates and keeping them motivated.

What are your future plans to further make sure lean thinking is top of mind for every employee?

The program was designed with four components, Learning > Application > Rewards and Recognition > Engagement. This framework aims to teach those who are willing to learn, guide them with their practice, reward remarkable performance, and keep a community that shares best practices that will enable and accelerate the learning process.

Kick-start your Lean Six Sigma professional certification journey, join our upcoming Certified Green Belt program starting January 17, 2020. 

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Lean Six Sigma Series No. 3: Overcome challenges and increase project success rate

Rommel Pastidio (top) and Lawrence Teo (bottom) holding their Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certificates. They are joined by their project sponsor and team members after a successful project review. 

Do you want to pursue a career in quality and process improvement but don’t know how and where to start? Hear from two of our Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belts on what started and sustained them in their journey. In this series, we are featuring Rommel Pastidio, Senior Manufacturing Quality Engineer and Lawrence Teo, Field Service Territory Manager.

What’s your motivation in completing your project?

Rommel Pastidio: Aside from the certification, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program motivates me to learn more and exercise the principle of lean six sigma. This creates a different perspective on solving the problems.

Lawrence Teo: I became interested to pursue LSS GB certification because I wanted to be formally educated and personally go through the whole end-to-end process in terms of running an improvement project.

What difficulties did you face and how did you overcome it?

Rommel Pastidio: The difficulties that I encountered was the collaboration and participation of the cross-functional team. To overcome this, it takes too much patience, I explained the advantage of the project both financial and process. And to make the team more interested sharing of knowledge and skills in terms of using statistical tools to solve the problem.

Lawrence Teo: In my line of work, I’ve seen a lot of inefficiencies and a lack of standardized practices. This is evident in many of our processes. Field. I took the time to involve all the technical and non-technical members to brainstorm and implement solutions to their challenges and issues. The biggest takeaway from the training is going back to the basics and try to see things from a different perspective. This is where having team members actively participating could help reap the full potential of any improvement project.

What advice do you give to aspiring Green Belts? 

Rommel Pastidio:  The only advice I can provide is 3P’s (Patience on the team, Passion on what are you doing and Precise on the expectation you are setting). This is my scheme for completing the project.

Lawrence Teo: The whole experience is very rewarding both personally and professionally. People will see you in a different light when you have the correct mindset and apply LSS principles at work. It’s not a walk in the park but it will be helpful in the long run.

Start your Lean Six Sigma journey. Join our upcoming Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program starting January 17, 2020. 

Click here for more information

An advice from A Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Professional: Rommel Pastidio

In this pic: (far left) Whitehall Consulting President, Babby Mejia; Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certified, Rommel Pastidio (right) , his team leaders, Melvin Dela Pena (left) and Vernon Armenteros (far right)

“Aside from the certification, it motivates me to learn more and exercise the principle of lean six sigma. This creates a different perspective on solving the problems. As I go with the process we learned, the difficulties that I encountered was the collaboration and participation of the cross-functional team. I explained to them that the advantage of the project both financial and process. The only advice I can provide is 3P’s (Patience on the team, Passion on what are you doing and Precise on the expectation you are setting). This is my scheme for completing the project”.

Meet Honeylyn Herbieto, our new Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

In the photo:   Whitehall Consulting President, Babby Mejia (far left)  with the newly Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Honeylyn Herbieto (center) and her team leaders, Christopher Lucas (left) and Melvin dela Peña (right)

“Since the area I handled was new, there weren’t any established procedures for the systems. I had to work from scratch, which was challenging since I myself did not have any background for the area. Thankfully, when we brought it up to the team, they suggest enrolling in a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Program. It was also a great help that we have coaches from Whitehall Consulting who have a background in managing a project. Aspire for the perfect future. Nothing is too impossible. Of course, 1 project is not the answer to all, but it is the building block for the future.”