The challenge was to consolidate all procedures into a single process-based system. Multifunctional teams needed to be established in order to develop and approve the process flows. There was no current process in place to create, or approve procedures. Emphasis needed to be placed on document simplicity and brevity. Experience would determine where more detail was needed.

Procedures were released to an intranet site with access by all employees. All documents were html-coded to keep them simple and allow the use of a readily available search tool. The search tool displayed all documents meeting the search criteria and included the paragraph containing the matched text. As a result, the desired information was frequently found with the first level search. Hyperlinks were used to avoid repeating common information shared by multiple documents. Printed copies were only allowed for short term use. Because of the risk associated with lean procedures, a commitment was made to employees that all procedure problems would be resolved within 5 business days.

A Process Owner was assigned to each document and given the responsibility to review all complaints or suggested improvements and recommend document changes to the Procedure Lead. The Procedure Lead is a single individual responsible for assuring that the Process Owner’s solution did not cause unexpected problems. The review team was given 2 work days to complete their review. A response was only required if there were concerns. If concerns were raised, the Procedure Lead facilitated an expeditious resolution. At the end of the review process, the Procedure Lead released the change. At the end of each week, the Procedure Lead published a list of all changes released that week on a web page and sent the link to all employees. All employees were responsible for awareness of all changes that impacted them.