8 / 32
8
/ Canadian Government Executive
// February 2016
ing a $1,200 plane ticket. The waste of
“Defects” was prominent in this situation,
consuming many more hours of human
capacity than it should have.
By eliminating defects in the process,
staff were able to dramatically reduce
preventable work, freeing up close to 50%
of the capacity previously required, on a
majority of its volume. As an added ben-
efit, this resulted in shorter lead times and
thus lower airfares by avoiding last-min-
ute booking costs.
How did they do it?
Identify and eliminate the root causes
of defects:
During the Lean project, the
team determined that users failed 80% of
the time to complete the application form
successfully, causing major preventable
work, because the form was:
• Written in “expert”, not common lan-
guage;
• Written with overly broad questions
that did not prompt or “nudge” the user
into the correct answer, the first time;
• Wordy, lengthy, and not understandable
Management
“at a glance”, so users would give up and
submit a hastily-completed form instead
of taking the time to figure it out;
• Multiple forms for different types of re-
quests resulted in some forms not being
filled out, or being filled out incorrectly.
After running focus groups to identify the
causes of recurring errors and usability of
the current forms, the team was able to
simplify, consolidate and error-proof them
to make them intuitive and easier to use.
Piloting and adjusting the new prototype
forms with small groups of real, typical us-
ers, proved that they would save consider-
able effort and led to a successful launch.
Tip: If you are trying this on your own,
make sure that you run your focus groups
with typical users, not your most-experi-
enced or best users. While your “power us-
ers” might be easy to recruit, they probably
have learned how to use imperfect forms.
On the other hand, if the least-successful
users can get the task done correctly with
your new prototype form, then the proto-
type form will likely work for everyone.
By eliminating defects in
the process, staff were able
to dramatically reduce
preventable work, freeing
up close to 50% of the
capacity previously
required, on a majority of
its volume. As an added
benefit, this resulted in
shorter lead times and thus
lower airfares by avoiding
last-minute booking costs.
The later it is identified, the higher the cost of a defect