Anna Pessah: Lean Thinking at Summit Funding (a)

Abstract

This case was a runner-up in the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) 2017 case competition.Anna Pessah, process engineer at Summit Funding (Summit), a mortgage-loan-processing company, is reflecting back on her year at the company. Pessah had been hired to improve operations at the firm—to make the core operations cheaper, faster, and of a higher quality. She had addressed two key operations: loan closings and verifications of employment (VOE). Her next tasks involved improvements at the 28 branches and reaction to a corporate-wide improvement program entitled “Project Ninja.” Pessah had implemented a system called “pods,” similar to manufacturing cells, in order to address loan closings. Data is given for the student to analyze the implications of this approach and suggest alternatives. Data is also given for analyzing the VOE process and deriving an approach to the branch productivity problem. Finally, the Project Ninja memo is given, and students are asked to evaluate this initiative. Excerpt UVA-OM-1569 Rev. Mar. 2, 2018 Anna Pessah: Lean Thinking at Summit Funding (A) Early Career Anna Pessah, an industrial and operations engineer with a master's degree from the University of Michigan, had begun her career at two Fortune 200 manufacturers, working in unionized production facilities as a Lean and change-management associate. While she enjoyed and valued the people she worked with and many of her experiences in these roles, one thing that she consistently found challenging about working in large, established companies with a long history of various change-management programs were the preconceptions many of the employees had about what to expect from her services. Pessah reflected: Working in these environments helped me learn how to overcome other people's resistance to change—mostly by taking the time to make personal connections and building trust. I was able to make some improvements here and there, but ultimately the culture was not a good fit for me. That's what led me to consider leaving manufacturing. . . .