Driving Continuous Improvement in a Transaction-based Business

A Case Study in how Lean principles were used to improve the delivery of Legal Services

Greg Avesian

Lean Transformation Leader

Orlans Group

Outline

➢ Background

➢ Business Problem

➢ Our Approach

➢ Results

➢ Key Takeaways

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My Background & Experience➢ Industries:

• Automotive

• Aerospace & Defense

• Government

• Higher Education

• Legal

➢ Positions Held

• Information Technology Leadership

• Product Development

• Business Consultant

• Lean Transformation Leader

➢ Education & Certifications

• BS & MS University of Michigan

• MBA Michigan State University

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

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Who is Orlans?

Orlans is an entrepreneurial spirited enterprise and is one of the nations largest women owned law firms. We serve the real estate, legal and financial services industries, and provide innovative legal and processing solutions to our clients.

Headquartered in Troy, MI, Orlans represents clients in 9 jurisdictions with regional operation centers in 6 states and eTitle is a nationwide real estate services firm.

We were recognized in 2017 as a Top Workplace in Michigan, Best & Brightest in Wellness winner for 2 consecutive years and recipient of the USFN Diamond award for 10 consecutive years.

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My goals for our time together

➢ Improve your knowledge of how Lean can be applied to transaction-based processes

➢ Share some best practices

➢ Understand some of the technical & soft skills necessary to be successful

➢ Continue the conversation

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What would you like to learn from this session?

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Lean in the Legal Industry

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CHICAGO LAWYER

Complexity of our Business

➢ 9 Jurisdictions: MI, MA, NH, RI, VA, MD, DC, DE, FL

➢ 100+ Financial Clients

➢ 40+ onsite Client audits each year

➢ 200+ Legal Documents prepared and filed daily

➢ 400,000+ process steps completed each month

➢ ~40+ new Client/State requirements per week

➢ Fixed Price Legal Service w/Milestone Billing

The application of Lean to our business is critical to our success

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Our Continuous Improvement Approach➢ We are focused on:

• Process Timeline reduction

• Quality Improvement

• Productivity Improvement

➢ Lean Six Sigma training:

• 57 classes, 650+ participants (1st class: 6/30/15)

• All employees (President, Functional Executives, Attorneys, Paralegals, Managers, Supervisors, Legal Processors)

• Included as part of our employee onboarding process

➢ What we are doing:

• Value Stream mapping & analysis

• Gemba Walks

• Data Analysis & Reporting

• Team Collaboration

• Celebrating our Successes

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Case Study

Legal document re-work rate reduction

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Problem Statement

The re-work of Legal documents impacts our Client timelines and drives the consumption of non-value added

labor hours(attorney & support staff)

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Simple Problem to Solve?

Y = f(X)

Y = Attorney revision rateX = Variables contributing to

document revisions

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High-Level process flow

Enter data into Case

Management System

Prepare Document

Attorney Review

Continue processing

case file

Receive new case file from

Client

Revise document

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Non-Value Added Labor Cost

➢ Legal processor making necessary corrections to the document

➢ Attorney conducting another review after requested revisions have been implemented

# Legal Documents requiring revisions per week 100

Time to revise each document .25 hours

Time to complete 2nd review of document .50 hours

Total weekly labor hours 75

Total annual labor hours 3,900

Annual labor hour impact (Illustration)

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Our “Factory”

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The “Hidden Factory”

The Hidden Factory is where the largest amount of money, time and resources are spent that are

considered “waste”.

The money spent in the Hidden Factory has the greatest negative impact on the competitiveness

and profitability of a company.

Source: Center for Organization Excellence

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What variables do you think impact document revision rates?

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Variable 1

Variable 2

Variable 3

Variable 4

Revision Rate

Variables Impacting Document Revisions

➢ Document Complexity

➢ Data entered into the Case Management system

➢ Case Management system issues (Templates, Data merge)

➢ Volume of reviews

➢ Calculations of data fields within the document

➢ Legal Processor creating the document

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Variables Impacting Document Revisions

➢ Attorney reviewing the document

➢ Inadequate work standards (attorney and support staff)

➢ Training

➢ Changes in Law

➢ Changes in Client requirements

➢ Input provided by vendors

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Revision Rate & Volume of Reviews

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Importance of Data

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Importance of Metrics in Legal

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Importance of Data & Analytics

➢ Export transaction data from our Case Management system (“source of truth”)

➢ Leverage Excel to analyze and summarize the data

➢ Create trend charts & graphs to monitor our performance over time

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Our Continuous Improvement Approach

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Review Attorney revision

comments

Determine revision category

Complete Root

Cause analysis

Collaborate with cross-functional

team

Measure weekly revision

rate

Implement Corrective Action(s)

Communicate with team

Primary Document Revision Categories➢ Real Estate Title-related

➢ Legal Description of Property

➢ Missing or Incorrect Data

➢ Document Template

➢ Processor Error

➢ Attorney Error

➢ Spelling

➢ Redaction Errors

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What are some of the challenges you think we faced as we worked

to drive down the document revision rates?

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Challenges

➢ Frustration

➢ “Not my issue”

➢ Desire for a “quick fix”

➢ Insufficient standards

➢ Cross department communication

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Challenges

➢ Many variables impacting performance

➢ Identifying the root cause of the revision

➢ Assembling the appropriate team to collaborate

➢ Organizational changes (e.g. new Attorneys)

➢ Implementing robust corrective actions

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Our Results

➢ Significant reductions in document revision rates have been achieved

➢ People are excited about what we’ve accomplished as a team

➢ Continuous improvement challenges remain

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Total Documents: 9,881

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Total Documents: 4,878

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Total Documents: 2,064

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Total Documents: 11,058

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Total Documents: 1,791

Reduction in Non-Value Added Labor Hours

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Improvement Summary

➢ Reductions in:

• Labor hours devoted to the preparation and review of Legal documents

• Lead-Time to deliver Legal document to Client/Court/County

• Time to get to our next billing milestone

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Celebrating Success➢ COO highlights during monthly All-Hands meeting

➢ President discusses during Town Hall meetings

➢ Team members create a positive “buzz”

➢ Kudos points awarded

➢ Happier Employees

Kudos awarded by our COO

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Key Takeaways➢ Find the “Hidden Factories” in your transaction

processes

➢ Develop & maintain robust work standards

➢ Ensure you obtain stakeholder support

➢ Use data & metrics to track performance

➢ Create a positive collaboration culture to support your continuous improvement efforts

➢ Celebrate your successes

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Questions

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Thank you for your time and let’s connect

gavesian@orlans.com

linkedin.com/in/gregavesian

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