Making the Case for Quality
September 2009
Getting Green With Lean
At a Glance . . .
• While some corporations
apply lean concepts in
the manufacturing and
supply chain areas, JDSU
extended this continuous
improvement philosophy
to its legal department.
• Faced with a potential
500- to 900-percent
increase in work, the
legal department’s
global trade team used
lean tools to eliminate
waste from its import
management processes.
• The department absorbed
the increased workload
by creating a paperless
process to handle import
functions, thus reducing
worker-hours and
eliminating at least 70,000
paper copies per year.
ASQ www.asq.org Page 1 of 4
by Janet Jacobsen
In challenging economic times, it’s not unusual for companies to require employees to take on a few
extra responsibilities to meet shifting business needs or to reduce expenses. However, when a pending
change in JDSU’s manufacturing operations foreshadowed a 500- to 900-percent increase in workload
for the company’s global trade team, employees quickly realized the pressing need for dramatic
process improvement.
About JDSU’s Legal Department
JDSU provides communications test and measurement solutions as well as optical products for net-
work equipment manufacturers and advanced security solutions for brand protection. Headquartered in
Milpitas, CA, this international company employs more than 4,000 people, including 23 staff members
in its legal department. With the goal of placing “as many boots on the ground” as possible in close
proximity to the company’s widespread operations, the legal department’s staff is dispersed among six
offices in four countries—the United States, Canada, Germany, and China.
This department is unique not only for its highly distributed staff, but also for the wide variety of func-
tions that fall under its purview, including intellectual property management and trade compliance.
Other more traditional responsibilities for the legal team include corporate reporting, compliance, com-
mercial agreements, and risk management.
Why Lean?
By serving all aspects of JDSU’s operations, members of the corporate legal team enjoy the unique
opportunity to gain a broad-based perspective of the company. As Matthew Fawcett, general counsel
at JDSU, explains, “We can poke our heads up, look across the organization around the world, and see
how other groups are implementing lean initiatives and process excellence.”
This perspective was key when, in the summer of 2008, the department’s global trade unit faced a
potentially enormous increase in workload. JDSU was considering relocating manufacturing operations
from two U.S. plants to Guadalajara, Mexico. Projections showed a workload escalation of 900 percent
would result for the global trade unit if manufacturing shifted from both plants, and 500 percent if the
operations of just one plant relocated. With U.S.-based manufacturing, the global trade staff has little
involvement: Eighty percent of the volume of the two plants is sold to U.S. customers, thus requiring
no import activity. Once operations transferred to Mexico, this business would become an import to the
United States, substantially increasing import compliance activity. “We quickly realized it would make a
tremendous impact on our work,” recalls Dave Wilson, senior manager of global trade for JDSU.
Wilson’s department, primarily located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is quite small with just six staff
members, two of whom were involved with the import management process. Given the economic
climate and the company’s ambition to develop best-in-class
lean processes, Wilson says he knew that hiring additional
employees to help process the extra transactions was not the
most desirable solution. Instead, he challenged himself and his
team to find innovative approaches to reduce the impact of the
looming changes.
Improving Import Processes Through Lean
In October 2008, Wilson’s trade team established a lean initiative
with the aim of designing more efficient and productive U.S. import
processes that would require less time and fewer resources without
compromising legal compliance and cost-avoidance imperatives.
Figure 1 presents the high-level charter for this activity.
Wilson, along with Stewart Thompson, senior trade specialist,
led the trade team through a series of brainstorming sessions
where the group explored the causes of inefficiencies in the
company’s import processes. See Figure 2 for a mind map that
shows the major categories the team identified. Wilson says that
process mapping and flowcharting exercises (Figure 3) helped
the team pinpoint the most time-consuming activities in the
overall process and identify improvements. “Finding the steps
that were most time-intensive and then discussing what we could
do to address them is how the paperless concept came about,”
explains Wilson, a JDSU employee for nine years.
Ultimately, the trade team identified and proposed five separate
initiatives to streamline the import management process:

Figure 1—Activity charter for lean “paperless”
initiative
Global Trade Lean “Paperless” Initiative
Current Situation:
Outsourcing of manufacturing from two
U.S. sites to a contract manufacturer in
Mexico would increase the trade team’s
import activity by 500% - 900%.
Goals & Objectives:
The goal of the initiative was to improve
the import process such that the trade
team could accommodate the increase in
activity with existing headcount.
Scope (Include what is off limits):
The scope was limited to U.S. imports
and maintaining U.S. Customs
compliance was non-negotiable.
Activity Start/Finish: 09-2008 / 01-2009
Sponsoring Manager: Matthew Fawcett
Team Leader: Dave Wilson
Team Members: Marcia Davis,
Brenda Elliott, Lydia Montavon,
Tina Rosborough, Stewart Thompson
Facilitator: Stewart Thompson
Consultants (Part-time Team Members):
None
Resource Requirements/Limitations
(Time/$$):
60 total person hours – computer
equipment totaling less than $1,000.
1. Creating a paperless customs entry process.
2. Expanding the amount of electronic data received from
customs brokers to support a paperless format.
3. Simplifying internal self-assessment and audit programs as the
department chose to reduce audits of low-risk transactions.
4. Establishing the use of electronic transmission of trade data
from the company’s contract manufacturer in Mexico.
5. Consolidating import shipments to reduce paperwork.
Figure 4 presents the stakeholder analysis that had been com-
pleted up front to prepare for implementing process changes. Both
management and employees were found to be likely to have
high influence on the success of the project and to be supportive.
Wilson reports that any potential concern regarding the proposed
process changes was easily overcome with the use of data: “We

Figure 2—Causes of inefficiencies in import process

By e-mail
Broker
Web site
Bulk
Delivery handling
of data Hardcopy Space
documents constraints

File size
Electronic transfer of files Security
protection
Stationery
Printing Printing
facilities
Probable
human Inefficiencies in the
Onsite
errors current import process
Review Storage space Subcontract
paperwork Storing/filing offsite
Administration
Review of data
in Oracle system Auditing for Handling of Administration
compliance documents Retrieving Wait time
Data comparison
Processing
Communication
with broker Through paper
Auditing Through online
Address gaps/ system
verification
Transfer to Subcontract
offsite Administrative
storage

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all said, ‘Look at the workload coming’… so the team was eager
to try this and quickly found the new process to be far superior.”
Since contract manufacturers and brokers wouldn’t directly ben-
efit, the analysis suggested, they were expected to need more
convincing based on their interest in keeping customers satisfied
in the long run.
The trade team tested its paperless solution through a dual monitor
system. A typical customs entry for the company contains any-
where from four to 25 pages. The staff must ensure consistency
and agreement between an invoice and the customs entry—a
painstaking process due to the precise nature of customs regula-
tions. Brainstorming the causes of inefficiency had led the team to
the idea of using two side-by-side computer monitors. Employees
could then easily view the two screens to compare the invoice to
the customs entry, eliminating the need for paper copies.
Meeting the Increased Workload With Green Processes
In just three months, the five lean initiatives were ready for
implementation. The project far exceeded initial expectations
as the trade group had no difficulty in handling a 500-percent
increase in transactions (due to the transferred operations for
only one plant rather than two). Thanks to process improvement,
the work associated with tasks like printing, sorting, matching,
collating, filing, and retrieving was eliminated.
The new paperless process is also more environmentally friendly.
The company typically generates 10,000 customs entries per
year, which equates to roughly 70,000 pages of documentation.
By eliminating a tremendous amount of paper, JDSU gains many
environmental benefits such as reduced paper, ink, electricity,
and storage costs. Employees benefit from faster retrieval time
since photocopying, scanning, and faxing are no longer neces-
sary. Fawcett calls the lean project a massive win, adding, “The
notion of going paperless in one significant part of our legal
department was very bold—a huge deal. Dave and his team have
set a high bar for the rest of the team.”
Additionally, through the streamlined process, the trade group reduced
the import management function to a one-person job. Wilson is quick
to explain that no staff positions were eliminated. The second staff
member who previously worked with the import management pro-
cess was able to help bolster other programs inside the department.
“Our lean objectives were initially simply to survive the tidal wave of

Figure 3—Import process flowchart (partial flowchart shown)

Receive hard-copy entry packages (daily)
Extract
Extract Receive
entries
invoices W&A
from Carrier 1 Carrier 2 Carrier 3 Carrier 4 Carrier 5
with VAT invoices
invoices entries entries entries entries entries
(e-mail) (Internet) (e-mail) (e-mail) (Internet)

Invoices Carrier Unapproved

with VAT entries brokers

Separate Monitor and

Print
business control entries
Entries
divisions to be printed

Replace this . . . . . . with this Replace this . . . . . . with this

Receive soft-copy entry packages (periodic) Receive soft-copy entry packages (daily)
Download Carrier 1 Carrier 2 Carrier 3 Carrier 4 Carrier 5
Receive
entry entries entries entries entries entries
CD-ROM
data (e-mail) (CD) (e-mail) (Internet) (Internet)

Compare Download entry Download entry Download entry

data to U.S. Monitor and
files to shared files to shared files to shared
Imports control entries to
‘Pending Input’ ‘Pending Check’ ‘Pending Audit’
Database be downloaded
folder folder folder

Entries not
U.S. Imports in U.S. Imports
Database Database 1 2 3

More detailed process flow continues from 1, 2, and 3

Obtain missing
entries from A/P
or from broker

ASQ www.asq.org Page 3 of 4

 activity, but the surprise benefit is that we could also provide support Figure 4—Stakeholder analysis
to other critical programs in the company by virtue of this initiative. Values for attitude, activity, power, and interest, were
Both people [who were involved with the import management pro- assigned using the following rating scales:
cess] are now very happy with their jobs,” says Wilson. Attitude -10 (strongly against) to 10 (strongly for)
Activity 0 (completely passive) to 10 (strongly active)
Faster, Cheaper, and Better With Lean Power 0 (no effective power) to 10 (powerful influence)
Interest 0 (no interest) to 10 (very interested)
By creating a more scalable import management process, the Stakeholder Relevant Attitude Power
Code Attitude Activity Power Interest
trade group is now positioned to handle the remaining 400-per- Categories Stakeholders Rating Rating
cent increase in workload, as the second U.S. facility is set to Contract Offshore
C 0 4 0.00 5 3 15.00
manufacturer manufacturing
move its operations to Mexico in 2009. Wilson explains that the
Management JDSU M 10 5 50.00 8 10 80.00
new process is documented with procedures to provide control Trade
mechanisms and to help the department cope with the next round Employees compliance E 5 10 50.00 5 10 50.00
of increased import activity. “In some environments there can team
Service
be a danger that new processes will revert to the old ways. In providers
Brokers B 5 3 15.00 5 2 10.00
this situation, the employees prefer the new process and simply Government U.S. Customs G 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00
could not handle the workload any other way,” Wilson explains.
The reference line in the interest/power plot represents the ideal balance
for a vital stakeholder. Points above the line represent stakeholders
As the department continues to find success with lean practices, with potentially high influence on the success of the project; they
Fawcett envisions using quality tools in other areas such as intel- can either be powerful supporters or powerful detractors.
lectual property management processes, commercial contracting, Interest/Power Plot

and the legal department’s billing system. “I think we are still Vital
at the beginning of our journey but it’s a journey we want to 10

continue. We’re committed to using lean to not only make things M

8
faster and perhaps cheaper, but the real Holy Grail is to make
them better too,” notes Fawcett. 6
Power

B C E
For More Information 4

2
• To learn more about JDSU, visit the company online at
www.jdsu.com. 0 G
• For further details about the legal department’s
lean initiatives, contact Rachel Shelton at 0 2 4 6 8 10
Interest
rachel.shelton@eastwick.com or 650-480-4069.
• Learn more about the quality tools used in this case study The reference line on the left side of the attitude/activity plot marks the point at
by reading Nancy Tague's The Quality Toolbox, ASQ which stakeholders are considered potentially adversarial to the project. Points
to the left of this line represent stakeholders who could present roadblocks. The
Quality Press, 2005, and visit www.asq.org/learn-about reference line on the right marks the point at which stakeholders are considered
-quality/lean/overview/overview.html for more resources potentially supportive of the project. Points to the right of this line represent
stakeholders who could provide assistance in overcoming roadblocks.
on lean. Attitude/Activity Plot

About the Author Adversarial Supportive

10 E
Janet Jacobsen is a freelance writer specializing in quality and
compliance topics. A graduate of Drake University, she resides 8
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
6
Activity

M
4 C
B
2

0 G

–10 –5 0 5 10

Attitude
Text from MINITAB Quality Companion help summary.

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