Continuous improvement can be acheived on any level - whether it involves multiple departments, one department, or one process. We welcome and encourage your submission of continuous improvement ideas. Upon submitting your idea, a LehighLean program champion will reach out to you to review your idea and determine appropriate next steps.
What qualifies as a LehighLean idea?
A LehighLean idea is a suggestion that describes a specific problem and aligns with Lehigh University's strategic initiatives.
Some examples of LehighLean ideas submitted by staff - all of which have already been completed and implemented!
- eSignature System (DocuSign): Paper-based document routing and signature processes are manual, slow, expensive, and error-prone. DocuSign eliminated the paper, automated the process, ensured data security, and has the ability to integrate with other systems that departments are already using. Due to the onset of Covid in 2019 and working in a remote environment, DocuSign was implemented across the campus in less than two months.
- Mold Emergency Response: Mold emergency issues arise, but we did not have a defined and easily repeatable, efficient process for the cross-department stakeholders involved in resolving mold emergencies. By applying LehighLean process improvements, the team created a process that quickly addresses and resolves the many issues that can arise. The new process saves time, improves student experiences, reduces potentially negative press about issues, improves collaboration between departments, improves communications and hopefully even saves financial resources.
- Transit Bus Preventive Maintenance: Lehigh’s transit buses must be in a constant state of rotation at the required deployment levels to ensure we can adequately provide the scheduled services to meet the student needs. On several occasions, we were unable to place buses in rotation due to repairs that needed emergency attention that should have been addressed as part of a scheduled preventative maintenence (PM) program. This LehighLean project addressed the fleet age and condition, the maintenance program for both PM and emergency, the parts procurement and the performance measures utilized to scheduled the buses for maintenance, ensuring we can deploy the necessary number of buses without compromising necessary maintenance and overall transit safety.
- HR New Hire Approval Routing: Currently, the hiring approval processes for staff, faculty, and adjuncts are inefficient and include confusing re-approvals throughout the processes for hiring, salary, classification, and position-description changes. This LehighLean project implemented improvements to the processes that save Lehigh time and financial resources and reduced errors and rework in the overall processes, often resulting in a two week approval time as opposed to several months.