Alumni Spotlight: Tom Crawford’s Most Impactful LSS Project

What is the most impactful Lean Six Sigma project that you have worked on? 

For Tom Crawford, a BPG LSS Black Belt, the answer comes quickly and easily:  An employee onboarding process for visually impaired employees he helped to develop and fine tune with one of his colleagues at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired (CABVI). When asked why he considers this his most impactful project to date, Tom explains, “I was working at a place that had a true impact on individuals lives through our mission of professional employment. Anything we could do to increase those opportunities and further that mission was going to have real, tangible results.”

PROJECT OVERVIEW

CABVI is committed to providing comprehensive and innovative services to blind and visually impaired individuals of all ages. This includes helping individuals find jobs.  Soon after Tom started working at CABVI, a woman with visual impairment was hired for their customer service department.  The hiring team thought they had everything in place for her to be successful from Day 1.  Instead, on Day 1, it was evident that not all the possible accommodations had been taken into consideration.    Fortunately, the company had the software, hardware and personnel resources needed to properly, and promptly, make necessary adjustments to both her workspace and her equipment.   Tom’s Lean Six Sigma project:  Work with the appropriate stakeholders to minimize the risk of this situation happening again.

WHAT WENT WRONG?  

After reviewing the situation, Tom identified the onboarding process as the culprit. In the manufacturing division, the facility itself is designed for those with visual impairment, and new hires are aided by team members to help orient them.  However, the process for administrative roles, as this particular role was, is geared primarily for sighted individuals. As the new customer service representative was the first person with visual impairment to be hired for this specific department, there was no one to fully anticipate the challenges she might encounter. 

With the culprit identified, the solution – an onboarding checklist – was created. To design it, the most important action for Tom was ensuring he “had all the right people (aka stakeholders) in the room” to identify what the checklist should include. 

• A hiring team member was needed so that the job requirements were clear. 
•  The employee was a critical stakeholder because, as Tom soon learned, solutions need to be customized to each individual’s visual impairment.  Bright lights and large print might work for some conditions, but many conditions require a more nuanced approach and special tools. 
• The next critical member of the onboarding team was a member of CABVI’s Vision Services group to determine what assistive technology would be most helpful and to provide training on the tools.
• Facilities and technical support stakeholders set up a customized workspace. 

LEAN TAKEAWAYS

• Small projects can have a big impact.  Once the onboarding issue was identified, the solution was quickly implemented.  Tom finds that in situations where change is scary or threatening to staff, or when an individual wants to introduce Lean Six Sigma to an organization, small wins can build credibility and support for the LEAN approach,
• Lean Six Sigma is both a process and a way of thinking.  Tom does not always formally follow all the steps of the DMAIC process – especially on smaller projects.  But he always approaches problems with the mindful and strategic thinking he learned at BPG. This includes how he makes decisions about which projects to pursue based on the organization’s priorities and resources.  And that means accepting that existing solutions for some proposed projects, while not ideal, are “good enough” for now and planning for further improvement when the time is right.

Tom emphasizes that the concept of “Continuous Improvement” should be ever-present. Even if you don’t have the means for full-scale implementation right now, introducing small initiatives over an extended period of time can have a significant impact on overall outcomes. And organizations such as BPG have the tools and expertise to help identify those incremental steps. 

ABOUT TOM CRAWFORD

Tom Crawford has degrees in Economics and Organizational Leadership.  His 30-year career at Donisi Mirror, a manufacturing company, gave him experience in all aspects of business including production, sales and executive leadership.  After the company closed in 2019, Tom earned his LSS Black Belt and worked on expanding his network as he considered the next phase of his career.  In 2021, he “landed” the position of COO / VP of Social Enterprise at CABVI.  Earlier this year he was named Chief Operating Officer of Music Teachers National Association, a non-profit organization.  If you are meeting people who see LSS as “just for manufacturing”, Tom suggests sharing examples of how you have applied LSS thinking to issues, and then show how that can translate to their (non-manufacturing) issues.  Once on the job, Tom urges you to really get to know the company and where you fit in.  And don’t wait to be unemployed to take another class.  Keep learning and expanding your skill set and network.