Background: Building Continuous Improvement Capability to Reduce Costs
A U.S. bank wanted to strengthen its continuous improvement team with Lean Six Sigma Green Belt skills. At a time when improving efficiency and reducing costs were particularly important, leadership needed an experienced partner with financial services expertise that could quickly build internal capability while generating measurable business results.
The Challenge: Building Skills While Delivering Immediate Value
The bank wanted more than traditional classroom training. Participants needed to develop practical Lean Six Sigma capabilities while applying those skills to real business problems across a wide range of banking operations. The program also needed to launch quickly and be delivered entirely virtually during the pandemic.
The Solution: Virtual Training Applied to Real-World Projects
Firefly designed and delivered a fully virtual Green Belt program combining Lean methods, data analysis, and statistical tools. Participants brought active improvement projects into the course, allowing exercises to be applied directly to their work and accelerating the transition from training to results. Firefly supplemented the coursework with individual virtual coaching through project completion. Projects addressed merchant services, call center operations, robotic process automation, banker support, ATM uptime, and multiple back-office processes.
The Impact: 30X ROI and Millions in Savings
The Green Belt program generated a 30X ROI, with participants delivering measurable improvements across a range of banking operations. Notable project results included:
- $1.8M+ in savings from reducing significant rework in the merchant disputes process, while also improving customer satisfaction.
- 15–20 FTEs in savings across two robotic process automation projects.
- $2M+ in savings from a permanent work-from-home initiative that also improved employee satisfaction.
In addition to the immediate financial and operational gains, the program strengthened the bank’s internal continuous improvement capabilities. Green Belts left the program with practical skills and experience they could apply to future projects, extending the value of the investment beyond the initial project portfolio.
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