Banking sector has come forward through a long way with many advancements.

Some of the common features of best in class banking operations are:

• Accessibility
• Fast service
• Customer centric
• Competitive
• Minimal down time
• Reliable
• Flexible to interact

Unfortunately, there are still more than 50% of the banking system is still outdated and works in old out fashioned way.

For those who have seen or experienced the earlier versions of traditional banks the following features are evident:

• Cumbersome processes
• No customer focus
• Very time consuming to get a job done
• Errors
• Unreliable systems
• Not easily accessible

Most of the young generation might think that technology has made the banking sector changed towards better. While technology is definitely one of the key factors, there are other major contributors which have helped banking organisations which is called Operational Excellence in the Banking sector. Methodologies such as 5s, Lean office and Lean Banking have helped largescale banks improve their overall effectiveness and optimized cost.

In one of the articles published by a major private it is claimed that savings of implementing operational excellence concepts is about 7.5 crores per annum from one integrated branch of the bank. Out of this savings, 50% contribution was from implementation of 5S methodologies alone.

The main goal of any organisation is to make sustained profit and be in the business and grow. Banking & financial sector goals are also no different from that. Recently we are seeing a lot of mergers among banks to reduce the losses among banking sectors. This is a strategic approach from the top to improve profitability of banks.

There are few management tools which implemented in the banking sectors will improve productivity to a larger extent and also improves customers’ service. 5S & Lean Banking are two major concepts.

5S is one of management concept also called workplace organisation, used in all sectors like manufacturing, hospital, restaurants, malls, airports, schools and all other places. It was popularised to a greater extent by Japanese industries and now it is followed by other countries and implemented across sectors. Recently 5S is being implemented in many banks. Even though it is simple, but a powerful concept.

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Delivering High Value Healthcare Through Lean Hospitals

In banking sector even though most of the transactions are online, still lot of papers work exists and needs to be stored by the banks for quick retrieval. For example, if customer wants address change or some additional facility like sms alert, he/she has to fill form & submit and the bank staff will not update the data immediately. They will receive forms and update later. In case they miss to update for one customer and if customer comes back later to find out the status, first this bank employee does is to cross check whether customer has given application. It will be very difficult to pull out the application, because customer may not remember the date on which application was given. This will take lot of time at the counter and other customers will be waiting & shouting. Through implementation of 5S, these types of problems could be solved to major extent.

Related Article- How to implement 5S and safety improvements in organisations

Also, banks store a lot of papers/files connected to loans, claims, deposits etc. These files will occupy a lot of space/cupboards. If unwanted files are not disposed of regularly, there may not be space for new files and new files will be dumped on the floor or wherever space is available and retrieval time takes a lot of time.

Banking is a very large sector where organisation structure normally includes Head office in each big city and many branches. For recruitment, HO stores a lot of resumes. Even after shortlisting, many resumes may not get discarded immediately. Then it will take a long time to dispose of these files and it occupies huge space.

Now there are many microfinance companies which finance small vendors. In these sectors not much computerisation is done. Many times, individual accounts and manual pass books are maintained. If disposing of closed accounts is not done at the right time, it will occupy a lot of space. Also running accounts passbooks to be maintained and for regular transactions they have to be retrieved quickly.

Few examples of 5S activities in the banks are labelling different cupboards with different colour sticks, counter identifications, general instructions for customers, Key management – identification of Keys and entry in a register when somebody takes it etc., listing of all files in the bank and their location etc. These activities will help in reducing retrieval times which improves productivity of bank staff as well as customer waiting time. Under 5S principle, there is an accepted standard for retrieval time of 30 secs. If 5S is properly implemented any paper/pc file/items can be retrieved in less than 30 secs.

Also, banks can save huge money by reducing offloading of warehousing of documents by creating more space in the available premises.

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5S workplace – Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize & sustain

5S is a people driven initiative and implementation will be challenging in banking sectors as employees have to spend additional time other than banking hours. Also once it is implemented, to sustain and improve the initiative, management has to implement award schemes either individually or branch wise which requires big effort from management. One of the methods for sustenance and improvement is, at the end of each day 10 min discussions to be held along with all staff to get ideas on what problems they faced on that day and what is the idea for further improvement.

However, the benefits of implementing overweigh the effort required for implementation. Few benefits are huge cost saving, productivity improvement, improvement in customer service and it changes the culture of bank working. 5S is also a prerequisite for implementing other bigger concepts like Lean or Six sigma.

Related Article- Frequently asked Questions on Lean Six Sigma Certifications

Seven Steps Academy of Excellence is a member of Seven Steps Group company. We conduct training programmes on 5S for office and banking sectors both as public training programmes and inhouse training programmes. Hand Holding and facilitation in the workplace is done through their group company Seven Steps Business Transformation Systems. Our lean office and 5S consultants specialized in banking sector helps organisations in strategizing 5S implementation and effective deployment for sustenance.

For further inputs on road maps, case studies and how we can further support you in 5s implementation in your organisation, please write to us through contact form.

Seven Steps academy also conducts other training programmes such as Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma black belt, Lean Six Sigma Master black belt, Lean Six sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Office and banking, Lean Daily work management systems, Lean 5S etc., for service industry which includes Hospitals, retail, insurance, education, front office operations, government services such as passport office, railways, bill processing, call centres, toll operations, colleges, municipal corporation offices, collector offices etc.,

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit - Aristotle

There are two important roles of leaders in every organization. The first role is to run the day to day business smoothly and the second role is to work on strategic goals to achieve organization’s vision. The first role is called Daily Management or Nichijo Kanri and the second role is called Policy deployment or Hoshin Kanri. Both originated from Japan and adapted across the world.

These two roles can be related to Chinese Yin and Yang which explains the relationship between two opposite and complementing principles from which this world is made. Like light and dark, fire and water etc… The purpose of daily Management is to sustain the improvements or ensuring the routine works done as per the standards already established and keep improving; whereas Policy deployment focuses on Break-through improvements or strategic objectives. In other words Daily Management is focusing on short term and Policy deployment on long term. They complement each other and we cannot ignore either of them. Lack of Daily Management causes firefighting and Lack of Policy deployment causes stagnant business growth.

Another way of defining these two roles is Daily Management is running of SDCA (Standardise-Do- Check-Act) Cycle and Policy deployment is running of PDCA (Plan-Do –Check-Act) cycle

Related Article- How to create an effective Lean Daily Work Management System

Relationship between PDCA and SDCA cycles

From our decades of experience in implementing both the concepts, we have seen three types of organizations

1. Organisations implemented both the concepts with its true spirit and successful
2. Organizations partially implemented these concepts and able to reap certain benefits
3. Organizations superficially implemented these concepts and failed

The focus of this article is on Daily Management. Because it is the pre-requisite for Policy Deployment.

For details on Policy deployment please refer to Our Blogs

To begin with let us understand the definition of Daily Management.

“Daily Management (also called as Lean Daily Management, Daily Work Management) is the system that provides the ability to manage departments, functions, and processes, wherein processes are defined, standardized, controlled, and improved by the process owners. The important aspect is that the management should be done on a day-to-day basis”

According to Mike Rother, the author of TOYOTA KATA,

“Everything deteriorates over time; there is no stable condition that can be maintained. The only solution is to improve constantly” – he relates this to the second Law of thermodynamics.

The Ingredients of Daily Management System

The reason why many organizations failed to implement Daily Management systems is, they either not understand the concept completely or tried to implement the concepts in bits and pieces.

Daily management system is compared to a giant elephant and its components are shown as parts of the elephant’s body. In fact the list is so big that we have not added other ingredients like 5S, Visual Management, ISO, SPC etc… These components need to be implemented in a concerted way to get maximum benefits from Daily Management Systems. Each component of daily management will be explained in detail in the subsequent parts of this article.

7 questions to all functions

These questions are related to daily management implementation

1. Do you know your Dept Mission, Goals, KPIs and established Key processes to achieve Mission. ( there should be clear linkage between organization Vision , Mission, Goals and Dept Goals)
2. Is organization structure available and roles and responsibilities of each position is clearly defined. Resources like competent team members and infrastructure are available?
3. Is Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) available to implement each process effectively and efficiently?
4. Is everyone in the dept knows about their Job Description, SOP, Goals , KPIs, abnormal conditions and response mechanism
5. Do you established the frequency and monitor the same? – Dash Boards / SPC Charts
6. Do you take actions when you are not meeting targets (abnormal conditions)
7. Are you working on continual improvements

If the answer is NO to any of the questions, the leaders should act and ensure the gap is addressed.

Once the Daily Management systems are established, the gemba walks, Reviews, audits should happen on time to ensure the compliance. We should remember one of the key principles of Daily Management

“Time for everything and everything in its time”

How Lean Six Sigma Certification benefits the careers of individuals and professionals.

Key reasons to be Lean Six Sigma Certified

Difference between six sigma green belt and black belt certification

What are the requirements for six sigma certification?

What is the use of six sigma yellow belt certification?

What is the use of six sigma Green belt certification?

How ASQ certification differs from other certification bodies etc.

• How Lean Six Sigma Certification benefits the careers of individuals and professionals?

As working professionals everyone wants to be recognised as proficient to lead and implement improvement to drive change. Six Sigma is one of the best certifications that enhance professional’s capabilities to deal with uncertainty, use data and analytics to drive improvement. Six Sigma certified professionals globally earn about 15 – 20% higher compensation than their counterparts who are not certified. Certified Six Sigma personnel can expect a higher role with added complexity and business challenges to perform even better and look forward to accelerated career growth.

• Key reasons to be Lean Six Sigma Certified

The first good reason to be certified on Six Sigma is to earn a higher compensation and enhance one’s market value. Six Sigma certified professionals are sought after globally as they are seen to possess data analytics and business knowledge skills that can be effectively used to overcome operational and strategic business challenges. They are considered adept to deal with client requirement volatility, uncertain business scenarios, complex customer requirements and ambiguity (VUCA).

• Difference between six sigma green belt and black belt certification

For managers in operations who have a day job to who handle line functions with teams reporting to them, a Green Belt certification is most preferred. Normally, the nature of the leaders’ role best determines the appropriate level of Lean Six Sigma certification. For professionals who have a full time role and responsibility to drive operational excellence or have a responsibility to drive change across a large team a Black Belt certification is preferred. By design a Six Sigma program execution model has a Master Black Belt (Guru) who has Black Belts reporting to him/her. Green Belts work under the guidance of Black Belts to implement improvements.

Related Article- How does six sigma Green belt certification help professionals?

• What are the requirements for six sigma certification?

The generic pre-requisites for any professional to earn a Six Sigma Certification typically are completion of a structured Training by certified and qualified Leaders, completion of Six Sigma Project(s) and to pass an exam which assesses their BOK and application ability /skill.

Related Article- How much does it cost for six sigma certifications in Bangalore?

• What is the use of six sigma yellow belt certification?

Yellow Belt certification is awarded to professionals who are line knowledge workers and talents that get billed for tasks that carry out every single day. To implement any change it is important to get the buy in from the practitioners and a Yellow Belt certification eases the effort by Team leaders to drive this changed behaviour.

• What is the use of six sigma Green belt certification?

Six Sigma Green Belt certification is awarded to professionals who lead a small team of line knowledge workers. To implement any improvement it is important to understand the larger organization needs and then to guide a team. A Green Belt certification helps department heads or Functional Leaders to drive change in smaller teams.

• How ASQ certification differs from other certification bodies etc.
• • The American Society for Quality (ASQ) a global body of Quality professionals, with more than 150 years of history offers several quality certifications in various professions in the fields of manufacturing, Healthcare, Product Design, Reliability, Software development, Supply Chain, Pharmaceuticals etc.
  • ASQs curriculum BOK is well designed and the assessment (exam) is based on “Blooms Taxonomy of Cognition” a scientific way to measure an individual’s knowledge about various tools and their effective application, analysis to deal with practical business challenges.
  • The Body of knowledge -BOK and question papers for the exam are continuously upgraded by constantly getting inputs from senior and experienced members of ASQ who are veteran quality professionals with vast and decades of working experience.
  • ASQ floats salary surveys among different groups each year. It is an established fact that ASQ certified professionals draws on an average of 15-20% higher CTC when compared to professionals without ASQ certification.
  • ASQ certification is recognized worldwide and hence this is also one of the most sought after by professionals.

Read More- How ASQ certification differ from other certification bodies

Too many defects, internal complaints and external customer complaints never gets resolved in organisations when it is not addressed in scientific way. Some of the issues get resolved and keep coming back time and again.

One of the proven and best solution to address these business challenges is a structured, systematic and data driven approach that gets a cross function team to focus to a common objective to discover root causes and implement solutions that sustain over a long time. That is Six Sigma DMAIC solution.

For implementation of Quality initiatives in organisations, it makes sense to upgrade knowledge levels and learning from experienced faculties who have vast knowledge and working experience in Quality improvements in various organisations.