Using generative AI as a co-pilot in process improvement

Generative AI is no longer a novelty — it’s quickly become a practical asset in the lean process improvement toolkit. This session will show how AI can accelerate certain tasks such as refining problem statements, defining project scope and suggesting SMART goals. Through a range of examples, you'll see how AI can enhance the quality and efficiency of process improvement work, from early project framing to ongoing analysis and communication. You’ll gain insight into where AI adds the most value, how teams are starting to embed it into standard work and what it looks like to collaborate with these tools in a thoughtful, disciplined way.

The session also touches on the risks and limitations of these tools: hallucinations, lack of context and data sensitivity. Rather than seeing AI as a black box, you’ll learn how to frame better prompts, provide helpful context and guide the tool like you would a capable but inexperienced analyst. This session will walk you through concepts like retrieval augmented generation (RAG) as a means of providing company context to large language models and explore how you can measure the efficacy of such systems to ensure that quality has a seat at the table for the coming age of AI innovations.

Whether you’re already experimenting with AI or just beginning to integrate it into daily work, this session will give you tactical ideas, a more nuanced understanding of AI’s capabilities and a framework for using it responsibly as a co-pilot in process improvement.

Key learning objectives

1. Discuss areas of AI that can be leveraged alongside traditional process improvement tools.
2. Address the open question of displacing critical thinking and how we can design AI interactions to aid rather than replace a critical thinking approach.
3. Share experiences and insights from experimenting with AI in process improvement and discuss positive ways that AI is impacting our industry.

Company

MoreSteam provides training and technology to help organizations build operational excellence in everything they do. The company integrates lean methods, Lean Six Sigma, agile process design and PDCA to provide a flexible set of expert tools supporting enterprise process improvement. Over half a million professionals and over 50% of Fortune 500 companies have used MoreSteam technologies. Its eLearning, training simulations and cloud-based tools (like EngineRoom data analysis and TRACtion project management software) support quick-hit process improvements, kaizen events and complex DMAIC projects in organizations of all sizes. In addition, MoreSteam supplements customers’ resources with Master Black Belts experienced in deployment support, coaching and training simulation facilitation. https://www.moresteam.com

Presenter

Xander Hathaway leads the software engineering capability at MoreSteam, focusing on application development, cloud architecture, security and DevOps for the organization. Hathaway comes to the Lean Six Sigma world from software engineering, where he worked in consulting to help architect and build cloud-based software solutions across various industries. He has a B.S. in computer science from the University of Notre Dame and earned a masters in information and data science from the University of California, Berkeley.