Lean Six Sigma Case Study – Bank Owner Real Estate Closing Process / REO

The following case study snapshot describes one of the Six Sigma Projects being undertaken in the Real Estate
Practice Group at a major regional law firm. The focus of this project is to increase the productivity of the Closing
Department, reduce closing error rate, and increase closing output quality to increase closing file volume.

Step 1 – Define. The first step, take a high level overview of the Suppliers, Inputs, Process Requirements,
Outputs and Customers, known as the SIPOC-R. This method provided insight to employees on the quality of
their input received, issues with the output they deliver to customer and clients.

With the foundation complete, The Doug Willams Group led a series of interviews and facilitated System of
Work reviews with the REO Process Improvement team during the next major exercise: the As Is Process Map.
Major obstacles to client delivery were recognized and bottle-neck process steps eliminated.

Step 2 – Measure. To verify assumptions and validate potential solutions, data was collected on key indicators.

Active and Closed Files Per Month Common Error Types

Issued By: The Doug Williams Group Page 1 of 2 Date Issued: 12/07/09 Revised: 1/26/10
Step 3 – Analyze. Productivity measures were established, which did not previously exist. The importance of
the LPS Quality Score was brought to light, and renewed process focus and attention to detail resulted in
improvement of 11 percentage points within the quarter.

Step 4 – Improve. The Process Mapping exercise identified dozens of additional opportunities for improvement, which
the Six Sigma team was able to prioritize and rapidly target 16 opportunities for breakthrough improvement. This
resulted in initial Cycle Time reduction of 5+ days, in the Title Commitment process alone!

Step 5 - Control. This phase requires ongoing measurement and review to help identify variations in process quality.
As the Implementation Plan is built based on the prioritized solutions, data continues to be gathered as the team enters
Step 5 - the Process Control phase.

Issued By: The Doug Williams Group Page 2 of 2 Date Issued: 12/07/09 Revised: 1/26/10