The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program at the University of Michigan empowers professionals to improve efficiency, strengthen systems, and create sustainable change. We spoke with Andrew Mach, Director of General Advising and Operations at the Newnan Academic Advising Center, who recently participated in the course. Andrew shares how his experience in the program helped him implement meaningful improvements in student advising.
Andrew: I’m the Director of General Advising and Operations at the Newnan Advising Center within the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) at the University of Michigan.
Newnan is the largest undergraduate advising center within LSA. Our office serves around 19,000 undergraduate students with a staff of just over 50 full-time team members. My role focuses on processes and technology in our day-to-day advising and supporting our advisors in developing sustainable practices and policies that meet the needs of our students. There’s a mix of supervision, coaching, frontline work, and advising—similar to what you’d see in other centers across campus.
Andrew: For me, both personally and professionally, the course stood out because it brought together so many valuable elements. It focused on process improvement but also included sections on statistics and data analysis—showing how to use data more systematically than we had before—while still incorporating project management principles.
Another major advantage was the emphasis on sustainability, which involved implementing changes that last. Sustainability was a real challenge for us, given our size and role within the college. The course helped me think about how our team could “work smarter, not harder,” as the saying goes, and put that energy back into supporting students as well as their own professional growth and development. I saw the potential for lasting change from the very beginning of the course, and it’s become one of the central themes we’ve focused on ever since.
Andrew: The most important thing that came out of the course was the mindset of continuous improvement—the idea that every change is a chance to get a little better, and that improvement is a constant, structured process.
The course also taught me the importance of experimentation and trying things out. You may not always move forward, but even setbacks are opportunities to learn and refine your approach.
I was also impressed by how effectively the course delivered these ideas in a hybrid format. Pat and Nicole did a great job making the content engaging and applicable, incorporating real examples and projects for us to learn from. They posed insightful questions that I still think about to this day and continue to apply with my team.
Andrew: I worked on a project related to our appointment trends, particularly for general advising. We were examining our no-show rate, which at the time was over 10%.
No-shows created a tremendous amount of rework for our advisors. They would prepare for appointments, but the student wouldn’t show up. As a result, the time they spent preparing could have been used to help another student. For students who did not show, this meant they still had unanswered questions and would end up emailing or dropping in.
The project involved a deep dive into data we had access to but hadn’t examined in a systematic way. Using tools from the course, we analyzed factors like time of day, day of the week, and how far in advance students were scheduling. One of the biggest patterns we identified was that students were simply forgetting about their appointments.
One of our long-term recommendations was to implement a better reminder system, such as adding text messages, instead of relying solely on email. That project gave us a foundation for ongoing improvement and helped us communicate in a very collaborative way with our Tech Services team within LSA. It became the basis for several subsequent projects that built on those initial findings.
Andrew: During the course, we started implementing changes using some of the tools and strategies we learned. We used the 5S tool to reorganize our front desk and storage area. We were able to cut excess inventory and open up that space by over 50%. It helped us find items more quickly, reduce waste, and sustain that change over time.
A year after the course, we implemented another major change to our appointment scheduling process. Previously, all appointments for a semester were released at once, and they’d fill up quickly—meaning some students had to wait weeks. Now, we release appointments on a set schedule in smaller increments, while still offering drop-in hours during deadline periods.
These changes gave students more flexibility and made our system more sustainable. As a result, our no-show rate dropped and now consistently stays at or below 10%. Additionally, the median time between an appointment being scheduled and the student talking with an advisor dropped by up to 70% depending on the time of year.
Andrew: I’d say we’re still working through change management whenever we test a new idea or improvement as an operations team. From the start, I wanted to make sure we included the entire operations team—including student staff and our campus partners—in the process. True improvement comes when each person contributes their strengths and understands why these changes matter and how they connect to the bigger picture.
Even now, a couple of years later, we continue to refine our systems—finding ways to be more efficient and eliminating redundant time and effort wherever possible. Continuous improvement is ongoing, and part of my role is now to help our advising and administrative teams understand the impact of our actions and how they can benefit both our staff and students.
Andrew: We eliminated over 50% of excess inventory space. Our no-show rate went down by 25%, and our wait time decreased by up to 70% in some cases. We streamlined appointment requests by introducing new schedules and forms and implemented a new phone menu system to route callers correctly within the college and, when necessary, across the university.
We are now in the next phase of continuous improvement. We’ve seen great results, but now we’re asking new questions to get even better. We aim to expand our availability without increasing our workload to maintain sustainable practices.
Andrew: Take a page from the course itself. Start by focusing on your goals and what you want to achieve. It’s the type of course where you get what you give. Make sure you have the time, resources, and leadership support—and ideally a problem or opportunity you want to explore.
Also, think about your learning style. I’m someone who can self-study, so the hybrid format worked really well for me. I liked being able to learn independently and then connect with instructors to discuss the material and troubleshoot challenges. But if that’s not for you, there are fully online and in-person learning options available.
