Project manager with six sigma skills

To,

Manager, Recruitment & Benefits

This letter is to express my interest in discussing the Part-Time Professor, Project Management position posted on your Conestoga College website. The opportunity presented in this listing is very appealing, and I believe that my seven years of project management and lean six sigma expertise with reputable companies will provide value towards achieving the goal of imparting quality education. With over 12 years of corporate professional experience in Canada, I have developed key skills related to project management.

Project Management and Lean Six Sigma: I have been working as Senior Process Consultant, Lean Six Sigma Solutions, Sun Life Financial providing management and strategy consulting as a member of the Business Excellence team, using Lean Six Sigma for projects related to Group Insurance, investments, and individual products. I coordinated multi-disciplinary working group teams to achieve program planning, change management, assessments and evaluations to reduce defects, reducing cycle time and saving costs for the company. I have developed “metrics framework” dashboards in Sun Life which assist the departments in managing their incoming requests, in-progress projects, and resources allocation to the projects.

I have also worked Scotiabank, International Banking to conduct Strategic Reviews in the Caribbean, where I have managed projects in conducting on-site diagnostics, investigating operational issues and recommending solutions to drive business value using Lean Six Sigma methodology.

I have passed the exams such as PMP, CQM/OE, Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, TQM and Lean Management. I also have worked five years in the retail bank branches as a Financial Advisor and thus have practical operations experience in banking & insurance.

I also have international experience working in food processing companies, specifically dairy and juice processing. I have managed recipes using Oracle ERP system to ensure proper JIT of raw materials in order to ensure purchase, production, human resources, inventory and sales are coordinated while quality standards are managed.

Teaching: I have gained over eight years of part-time teaching experience as a faculty at HAADI Academia & Development, Inc. and at Canadian College of Business, Science, and Technology where I have used the knowledge and skills attained from working at a large corporation to teach students subjects in Business Faculty. I also have conducted in-house training of staff in Scotiabank and Sun Life for Six Sigma and Project Management certification. I have presented numerous speeches and research papers at various forums, conferences, and am keen to continue this pursuit of academic excellence in your esteemed facility.

Computer Systems: I have developed skills in articulating and describing complex concepts in a simple, clear language with effective presentations, and have adequate expertise in computer applications such as Excel (Pivot tables & statistical analysis), PowerPoint, Word, Minitab, and Visio, towards meeting organizational objectives.

Community: I have served in the community through volunteering at several community organizations including volunteering with COSTI & Humber College, mentoring for guiding new immigrants in Canada. In addition, I have been a United Way Ambassador for Scotiabank branch for two years. The enclosed resume will provide further details of my teaching and corporation work experience and background. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to speaking with you about this employment opportunity.

Sincerely,

AIZAD AHMAD

Aizad Ahmad Tel. 519-***-****

Kitchener, ON, N2E4B3

********@*****.**

AREA OF EXPERTISE

Highly accomplished professional with over 15 years of experience in both financial (banking & insurance) and manufacturing (food processing) sectors. Worked in various functions such as sales & service, process improvement, quality assurance, research & development, teaching, operations management, and financial planning. Demonstrated leadership abilities, including innovation, communication, community outreach, managing complexity and strong interpersonal skills.

Lean Six Sigma & process improvement

Food processing operations

Total Quality Management

Project Management

Sales & service management

Banking & Insurance operations

Teaching & training

EXPERIENCE

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL Waterloo, ON 2015-2018

Senior Process Consultant, Business Excellence

Managed several projects and initiatives as a Project Manager in the Business Excellence team, using Lean Six Sigma methodology related to Group Insurance, insurance and marketing

1.Metrics Framework – Phase 1 – Intake request tool improvement (enhanced customer requirements)

2.Metrics Framework – Phase 2 – Demand quality improvement (improved visibility of new & in-progress requests)

3.Metrics Framework – Phase 3 – Capacity enhancement (improved resources allocation)

4.Metrics Framework – Phase 4 – Delivery improvement (completed projects & work breakdown structure)

5.Mixed skill level – H&D

6.Knowledge management – H&D

7.Missing information in claims – H&D

Developed and implemented discovery phase steps which comprised of meeting with business leaders, reviewed of organization chart, prepared a milestone plan, drafted SIPOC and process flow charts, reviewed current metrics, shortlisted potential projects, prioritized projects and conducted kickoff meetings.

Prepared stakeholder analysis, interviewed champions and sponsors, assessed impact of change, planned rick management, and ensured communication plan was effective to meet project goals.

Reviewed Marketing functional area and undertook value stream inventory to create options for process improvement. Highlighted need to improve incoming request handling, capacity management, and enhance in-progress request status visibility

Applied DMAIC six sigma methodology to find and fix a targeted problem by improving Average Handle Time in the Health & Dental claim adjudication process

Analyzed Organization Charts by reviewing the roles and responsibilities, span of control, and teams involvement thus assisting in discovery meeting planning

Led multi-disciplinary working group teams while undertaking projects for process improvements and ensured project remained on-track in terms of scope, time, quality and cost.

Undertook discovery meetings with key stakeholders to understand demand management (types of requests, intake channels, volume & status of requests), delivery management (how turn-around time is measured, service level agreements definition, and our ability to meet the targets), capacity management (how work is assigned, how it matches the skills, how work is sized, how work is prioritized, how resources shortage is managed), planning & forecast (what KPIs are monitored and how they are reported).

Applied TIMWOODS lean management principles for process improvement by assessing transport (movement of people & products), inventory (space used for archiving documents and hard copies), motion (tracking missing information), waiting (theory of constraints), overproduction (multiple revisions), over-processing (fixing errors), defects (scrap, rework of low quality product), and skills (underutilized workforce). As a result, was able to reduce waiting time by 22%, reduce defects by 18% and increased coordination by combining eight reporting excel sheets into one centralized KPI dashboard.

SCOTIABANK INTERNATIONAL, Toronto, ON 2012 – 2015

Manager Process Design, Six Sigma

Conducted on-site diagnostics business issues and recommending solutions to drive business value using Lean Six Sigma methodology. Worked with 8-person team in International Banking to improve banking operations in 10+ countries where the Bank has branches. Project list:

1.Improved sales and service component in bank branches in the Caribbean

2.Account opening process improvement in Jamaica/Trinidad; reduced waste and less cycle time

3.Personal Loan process improvement in Trinidad – front end and back end; reduced non-value added activities and less cycle time

4.Mortgage loan process improvement in Trinidad; condensed non-value activities and less cycle time

5.Strategic country operations size-up to assess span of control, productivity ratio (as % of total revenues), expense distribution, expense growth vs revenue growth, and other KPIs evaluation for enhanced Return on Investment

In 32 branches in Scotiabank Jamaica, the bank account opening process was inefficient and improvements were made as under:

o 65 # of steps, reduced by 52%;

ocustomers spent 77 minutes, reduced by 22%;

obank branch time was 111 minutes, reduced by 43%;

o18 documents required to open an account, reduced by 17%

o4 approvals required, reduced by 50%

oThe process improvement was undertaken by data collection on-site through observations, interviews, and prepared swim-lane flow charts, value stream maps, spaghetti diagrams, and analyzed data with pareto and histograms

oThis resulted in improved productivity and higher customer satisfaction.

oSimilar project was undertaken in Scotiabank Trinidad as well.

In Scotiabank Trinidad & Jamaica, the loan adjudication process took 1068 minutes (18 hours) – including wait time. The end-to-end process was evaluated and 15% reduction in time was evidenced by applying lean six sigma principles, which resulted in enhanced productivity.

In Scotiabank Trinidad, an E2E review of the mortgage process indicated 58 steps (reduced to 40), 194 minutes was the customer time in the branch (reduced to 127 minutes), total time to fund a mortgage was around 20 days (reduced to 15 days), while 24 documents were required (reduced to 18).

During sales observation in the branches, it was observed that due to the numerous step-by-step application processes, the personal banker was not able to cross sell other products. Conducted review and due to procedure steps reduction the cross-sell ratio improved by 12%.

IT was engaged to update the software system and remove non-value added steps. Around 70% waiting time was observed and reduced significantly.

Managed multi-country Kaizen event in Miami, USA, for root cause analysis of mortgage process with representatives from Jamaica, Trinidad and Dominican Republic and documented 8 potential process improvements.

Project management was not being undertaken in an efficient manner, resulting in delays. Composed Gantt Chart, with task and milestone tracking to monitor project status, resulting in less project delays, improved governance, and better alignment of roles, responsibilities & expectations

Plan to improve handling of claims with mixed skill level was not clearly articulated. Drafted and finalized Project Charter with….

SCOTIABANK, Toronto, ON 2007 – 2012

Financial Advisor

Provided clients in the branch with professional advice for their financial planning:

1. Investments - mutual funds, GICs, saving for retirement planning and children's education

2. Credit borrowing strategies to improve net worth, achieved 96% of target

3. Mortgage lending based on policies of the bank.

4. Process improvement project assistance

Achievements in 2010: 204% of target for mutual funds target, #1 in district based on gross MF sales ($5,097,900); total new investments: 125% of target; GIC renewals 79% of target; 17 online brokerage accounts opened

RBC INSURANCE Toronto, ON 2006 – 2007

Insurance Advisor

Provided clients with professional advice for their insurance planning.

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENTS, Toronto, ON 2005

Investment Advisor Trainee

Completed financial courses: Canadian Securities Courses (CSC), Canadian Insurance Course (LLQP), and CPH. Completed branch training. Initiated client interactions for investment advice.

HALEEB FOODS (CDL FOODS), Pakistan 2000-2004

Manager Research & Development & Quality Control

Fully integrated dairy processing firm, with liquid milk, powder plant, by-product processing and cold chain distribution system. I lead the R&D Team with a mandate to manage projects to develop & launch new products such as fruit juices, butter, yoghurt, flavored milk, fortified milk powder, tea whitener, and many other products and improved the process of current products.

Investigated root cause of quality issues and implemented corrective actions. Improved testing facilities by adding new analytical methods. Documented ERP systems and recipe management of all products. Implemented ISO9000 and HACCP quality systems.

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration (MBA), 1996

University of Salford, England, UK

Master of Science, Food Technology

(Equivalency Certificate by University of Toronto)

Bachelor of Science, Agriculture, Food Technology

(Equivalency Certificate by University of Toronto)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Certifications:

Certified Quality Manager/Organizational Excellence, ASQ, 2018

Project Management Professional (PMP), 2012, PMI

Six Sigma Green Belt Certification (ASQ), 2012 Six Sigma Black Belt, 2013

Total Quality Management, Lean Management, (2010)

ISO9000 training courses, 2002

Financial Courses: CSC, CPH, LLQP, PFP

Training courses undertaken:

Communications and Negotiation, 2016, Sun Life Financial

Project Management training course, 2011, HAADI, Toronto

Leadership Development Course, 2013, Scotiabank International

Professional affiliations:

Member, Project Management Institute, USA

Member, American Society of Quality, USA

Member, Ontario Food Protection Association, Canada

Presentations at professional forums:

Canadian Institute of Food Scientists and Technologists – National Conference, 2012, Application of Lean Six Sigma in the Food Industry

ASQ Toronto Innovation International Conference, 2015 – Six Sigma utilization in the New Product Development Process

ASQ Toronto Section 0402 Breakfast Workshop Meeting, Nov 29, 2014: Application of Lean Six Sigma Methodology in Banking

Training sessions conducted:

Six Sigma Yellow Belt training, May 7,2018, BCL, London

Six Sigma Green Belt training, April 26 and 27,2018, Best Career Leap, Kitchener

Project Management training, March 5,6,7,2018 ILM, Kitchener

Business Case Writing, April 9, 2018, BCL, London

Project Management, Dec 14 & 15, 2017, Woodstock

Canadian Securities Course, LLQP, IFC exam preparation, ILM Consulting, online training

Six Sigma Green Belt, Sept 20 and 21, 2017, Best Career Leap, Kitchener

Excel 2016 New features for data analysis, Sun Life Bright Learning, Aug. 1, 2017

Six Sigma Yellow Belt, May 3, 2017, BCL, London

Six Sigma Green Belt, Oct 5 and 6th, 2017, BCL, Kitchener

Six Sigma Green belt training in-house, Sun Life Financial, 2016-2018

Business Case Writing, Nov. 7, 2017, BCL, London

Metrics Framework implementation in Individual Marketing, Bright Learning, Sun Life, 2016

Project Discovery Phase Best Practices Presentation, Bright Learning, Sun Life, 2016

Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Nov. 4, 2016, BCL, London

Change Management, Dec 2, 2016, BCL, Halifax

Six Sigma Green Belt training in-house, Scotiabank, 2013-15

Publications:

1.Qamar Abbas, Aizad Ahmad, and M. Ashraf, 2003, Effect of UHT and in-bottle sterilization temperatures on storage and stability of milk, Pak. J. Food Sci., 13(3-4):25-29

2.Aizad Ahmad, 2000, Involvement of Private Sector in Marketing of Fruits and Vegetables in Pakistan, Pak. J. Food Sci., 10(1-2):30-33

3.Ahmad, A. 1993. Citrus Processing Potential in Pakistan. Food Science News. Fsbd. Vol. 3. No. 104. Pp 11-12

4.Ahmad, A., J.A. Awan., M.I. Siddique., A.H. Gilani. 1994. A Study of the Physico Chemical Characteristics of Kinnow Juice Concentrate., Fruit Processing. Germany., Vol 4, No 2.Pp 50-52

5.Ahmad, A and Rashi Arora. Quality Progress, 2015. Map to the Clouds

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