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Date

Attendees

Goals

  • Start the discussion of how Six Sigma can be implemented at the JGI.

Discussion items

TimeItemWhoNotes
Kick offNigel
  • DOW put a lot of effort into continuous improvement. Start small and gradual put more and more effort in. After six years, there was continuous improvement throughout the organisation, including HR and safety. There were large payoffs such as dollar amounts, but more importantly people had more time do science and more streamlined processes. Nigel is very passionate about six sigma and has seen it work very well in previous organisations.
 Previous JGI six sigmaAll
  • JGI has gone through ebbs and flows of using six sigma.
  • Lisa has seen a lot of communication issues at the JGI.
  • Nigel has noticed a lot of potential for reducing silos and improving internal communication.
  • Kecia suggests choosing a small winnable project that could help improve buy in.
  • Chris Daum suggests setting up better pooling systems to be better able to meet capacity, that could then be able to fed into the other parts of the lab such as the supply chain or QAQC.
  • Christine had previously suggested doing simulations for capacity planning with Randy. However Randy is leaving, and Christine does not have much free time.
  • Chris Daum suggests focusing on reducing the over sequencing of samples. Some samples are heavily over sequenced, could try and reduce the amount of sequencing so that so much data is not thrown away.
  • Nancy suggests streamlining the sample quality process so that we don't waste money on sequencing poor quality samples.
  • Nigel suggests focusing on the small quick and easy wins to prove this process works and get buy in.
  • Nancy suggesting on better ways to handle collaborator's samples and the failure costs of not shipping back their samples.
  • Nigel suggests reviewing the data use policies so that there is less ambiguity and how to handle.
 

Picking project and moving forward

 
  • Pick a project and focus on this.
  • What does success look like?
  • What are the metrics that are trying to be improved?
  • Previously had mentors (Steve Grace) from Livermore had provided resources and training for Six Sigma. They still have an active program.
  • Nigel is happy to sponsor training and provide resources.
  • The JGI will have less available resources depending on the federal budget and moving to the Hill. The JGI therefore needs to become more streamlined - being more efficient. It is a strategic goal for not just the JGI but also for the lab in general.

Possible Projects

  • Better pooling for samples and subsequent planning for downstream processes for capacity planning (Chris Daum)
  • Computer simulations to help with capacity planning (Christine Naca)
  • Reducing the amount of sequence wasted by over sequencing (Chris Daum)
  • Throw away samples after we have processed them. JGI no longer needs to store and possibly return samples. This reduces the amount of capacity required to store and handle these (Nancy Hammon)
  • Review the data use policies to reduce ambiguity. (Nigel Mouncey)

Action items

  • Becky Reiss, could you create a JIRA/confluence ID for Nigel?
  • Nigel will reach out to Steve Grace to see if he can come down and give us advice. Working with Steve could help us pick projects and choose those that could be easy wins.