Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Program

About the Program

Continuous improvement of internal processes is one of the perspectives outlined in DFA's Strategic Plan. Launched in 2017, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Yellow Belt builds on the white belt training, giving process owners the opportunity to apply LSS tools and principles to real projects.

LSS Yellow Belt training is offered twice a year in the spring and fall. Participants are nominated by their department head and selected after an application process.

After successfully completing the program, participants present their process improvement projects to DFA cabinet members and their projects are added to the project library.

LSS Yellow Belt Application and Certification Process


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step 2

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step 3

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step 4

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step 5

Complete
Prerequisites

Complete
Application

Select a
Project

Complete
Training

Continue
Practicing

step 1

Prerequisites

The program is intended to empower participants to complete process improvement projects in their functional area or as a cross-functional team. Participants are expected to have the following qualifications:

  • Process owners or have a direct line to the process owner to implement improvement changes.
  • Demonstrated interest in process improvement and change management.
  • Ability and willingness to complete a process improvement project during the program (within 7 weeks) as well as lead or participate in additional projects after completion of the program.
  • Completed Lean Six Sigma White Belt training.
  • Strong communication and quantitative skills (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
step 2

Application Process

  1. Discuss your interest in LSS Yellow Belt with your supervisor/department head.
  2. Secure supervisor and department head approval for your application and project (see below for project criteria).
  3. Complete the application form (ask supervisor for link or email your supervisor and department head approval to WithUForU@uci.edu).
    • Two cohorts (spring and fall) are offered each year.
step 3

Select a Project

  • Participants should be process owner or have a direct line to the process owner to implement improvement changes.
  • Consider selecting a process where you can collect data, analyze, and develop potential solutions for within 7 weeks.
  • Participants need to have supervisor, department head, and DFA cabinet member support for the project they select. Please consult the A3 Readiness Assessment tool to make sure you have the proper alignment for your project. If your assessment is "Not Ready" or "Possibly Ready," please discuss another potential project with your supervisor/sponsor.

Email WithUForU@uci.edu with any questions about the program.

step 4

Complete Training

  1. Attend all class sessions (seven two-hour weekly Zoom sessions) and complete your process improvement project.
  2. Receive your Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification.
  3. Present your process improvement project to DFA cabinet.
step 5

Continue Practicing

Continue to apply your skills and knowledge to process improvement projects and serve as a mentor/advisor to others.


Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Projects Archive

Reminder the SharePoint site requires approval and access with UCI credentials.

Cohort Project Title & Goal Status* Department
2022 Fall ServiceNow Platform for DFA Support Services (A3 & PPT):
Reduce time from request for service to response from 30 or more days to 5 business days by March 1, 2023, providing a consistent one-stop way for users to communicate issues and receive a meaningful response.
Completed DFA Support Services
2022 Fall Contracts & Grants Accounting’s Records Retention (A3 & PPT):
Create a consistent way to file, organize, and archive  awards, eliminating Contracts & Grants hard copy files by March 31, 2023.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2022 Fall DFA KSAMS Access Process (A3 & PPT): 
Align the DFA KSAMS process with the approach utilized campuswide by March 30, 2023.
Completed DFA Program Development & Execution
2022 Fall

DFA Computer Equipment Tracking (A3 & PPT): 
Reduce the Equipment Manager's average time to complete their unit's annual computer equipment inventory from 16 working days to less than 14 working days by February 13, 2023.

Completed DFA Program Development & Execution
2022 Fall UCI UCPath Transactor Web Page Redesign (A3 & PPT): 
Increase web page usage and number of interactions and clicks by 10% by August 31, 2023 (overall project goal); determine why transactors are underutilizing the web page by February 28, 2023 (program scope goal).
Completed UCI UCPath
2022 Spring Know Your Zone (A3 & PPT):
Increase the number of campus community members that are familiar with the new evacuation zones, orders, and protective measures by 200 views by October 31, 2022.
Completed UCI Emergency Management
2022 Spring Control Planning Revenue (A3 & PPT):
Improve process efficiencies and identify a way to review all small revenue sources coming into central campus by July 2022.
Completed UCI Budget Office
2022 Spring UCPath IT - Cyber Hygiene (A3 & PPT):
Decrease the number of places to track risk assessment action item work being done by June 2022.
Completed UCI UCPath IT
2022 Spring UCI Green Labs Program (A3 & PPT):
Redesign the UCI Green Labs certification program to reduce average time of completion from 8 months to 3 months and certifying 25% of total wet research laboratories by 2027.
In Progress UCI Campus Physical & Environmental Planning
2022 Spring UCPath GL Support Process Improvement (A3 & PPT):
Decrease the amount of service requests involving the UCI UCPath GL team by 25% by 4/30/2023. Significantly improve the resolution time for UCI EEC tickets assigned to the UCI GL Support team.
Completed UCI UCPath
2022 Spring Real Estate Transaction Process (A3 & PPT):
Document the current lease approval process, standardize the workflow and improve communications.
In Progress UCI Real Estate Services
2021 Spring UCI Police Department Records (A3 & PPT):
Reduce customer wait time for requested police reports from 7-10 business days to 5-7 business days by July 2021.
Completed UCI Police Department
2021 Spring UCPath Business Process Re-Engineering (A3 & PPT):
Achieve an accuracy rate improvement between 20% to 90% by August 30, 2021.
Completed UCI UCPath
2021 Fall EEC Reporting to Drive Process Improvement (A3 & PPT):
Develop a methodology that can analyze and report on UCI UCPath Support cases submitted by our campus community. The methodology will be developed by 3/31/22.
Completed UCI UCPath
2021 Fall Uni Hills Emergency Preparedness (A3 & PPT):
The goal of this project is to engage the community members to provide resources and information to assist them to be better prepared, and to increase participation in emergency notifications by 30% by March 2022.
Completed UCI Emergency Management
2021 Fall Implementation of Interdepartmental File Transfer Process (A3 & PPT):
Improve the records transfer process and reduce file transfer time to no more than 5 business days by March 31, 2022.
Completed UCI Transportation & Distribution Services
2021 Fall Cash Flow Report (A3 & PPT):
Create a live cash flow report by the end of fiscal year 2022 that updates automatically daily, allowing management to react in real time.
Completed UCI Budget Office
2021 Fall UCPath Pay Training Improvements (A3 & PPT):
Reduce the number of tickets and calls to drop-in center for missed or incorrect pay by 30% from our baseline of 150 by June 30, 2022.
Completed UCI UCPath
2021 Fall Campuswide Permanent Staffing List (A3 & PPT):
Automate the manual process of the range costing file in UCPath.
Completed UCI Budget Office
2021 Fall Payroll Systems Change Impact Management (A3 & PPT):
Proactively control, manage and mitigate impact of UCPath system changes by establishing a new business process that would effectively improve our UCI Central Payroll business processes, staff productivity, and system stability.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2021 Spring Contracts & Grants Closeout Process (A3 & PPT):
Ensure completion of closeouts by 120 days after the award end date by the end of FY2022.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2021 Spring FM IBM Tririga Assessment (A3 & PPT):
Reduce the number of employee complaints about the FM Tririga system by 50% by December 2021.
Completed UCI Facilities Management
2021 Spring K-9 TRS Time Entry System Enhancement (A3 & PPT):
Reduce the manual entries for K-9 represented staff by 25% by 3/31/22.
In Progress DFA Support Services
2021 Spring Lease Space Review Process (A3 & PPT):
Implement a review and approval process for leased space.
Completed UCI Facilities Management
2021 Spring Payday Quality Assurance Business Process (A3 & PPT) :
Reduce missed pay during the on-cycle by 50% and reallocate 25% of resources by June 30th, 2021.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2021 Spring Procurement Contracts Purchase Order Baseline (A3 & PPT):
Establish a baseline of when Procurement received a Purchase Order review request and when the Purchase Order was finalized by July 30, 2021.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2021 Spring Parking Citation Collections in a Pandemic (A3 & PPT):
Reactivate all citation processing and systems by Fall 2021, and return to citation payment rates to pre-pandemic levels within 1-2 fiscal years.
Completed UCI Transportation & Distribution Services
2020 Fall UCI Campus Payroll Batch Process (A3 & PPT):
Establish process for UCPath batch processing.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2020 Fall D&CS Contracts & Finance Process (A3 & PPT):
Decrease time for initial invoice processing from 6-8 weeks to 4 weeks by September 2021.
In Progress DFA Support Services
2020 Fall DFA New Hire Onboarding (A3 & PPT):
Reduce the average onboarding cycle time by a minimum of 15% (two weeks) by March, 2021.
In Progress DFA Support Services
2020 Fall FM Construction Projects Review (A3 & PPT):
Reduce percentage of project review times over 10 business days from 53% to 20%.
In Progress UCI Facilities Management
2020 Fall Funding Process for Capital and DM Projects (A3 & PPT):
Improve funding transparency and budget plan by the start of fiscal year 2021-2022.
Completed Office of the CFO & Vice Chancellor
2020 Spring Fire Safety Quarterly Metrics Reporting (A3 & PPT):
Qualify the Fire Safety Group’s quarterly metrics based on time, not money, invested by the entire 16 team members, to accurately define risk management on a quarterly basis.
In Progress UCI Environmental Health & Safety
2020 Spring KSAMS Role Assignments (A3 & PPT):
Reduce the average time to assign KSAMS roles from XXX days to XXX days by October 1, 2020.
Completed UCI Accounting & Fiscal Services
2020 Spring Tightening the Belt of the Notifications Structure (A3 & PPT):
Centralize the tools and data needed for notifications, identify possible inefficiencies to avoid any breakdown in response times and address proposed solutions of identified inefficiencies by September 2020.
In Progress UCI Police Department
2020 Spring UCI MOP Allocation (PPT):
Communicate the MOP campus allocation distribution and school balance to all Deans increasing the frequency from zero to once a year by August 31, 2020 and each year after.
In Progress Office of the CFO & Vice Chancellor
2020 Spring UCPath Change Request Communication (A3 & PPT):
Successful integration of UCPath Change Requests via a consistent, effective communication process to share Change Requests with Stakeholders.
Completed UCI UCPath

*Completion status of the project scope defined for the program.