Lean Six Sigma For Leaders

Personal Leadership Perspective – Derek Kennedy, Forensic Science, Northern Ireland

Derek Kennedy, former Transformation Director, Forensic Science, Northern Ireland (FSNI), now Visiting Professor, Ulster University Business School and Programme Transformation Director, Strategic Investment Board, Northern Ireland.

1. Why did you start it – what prompted you to get going?

Context

Society in Northern Ireland had normalised, and crime associated with the ‘Troubles’ had diminished. Crime trends are now more like those elsewhere in the UK with similar populations. Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI) had to be both accurate (which it always was) but without the luxury of time (it always had as much as it wanted) in order to meet society's expectations and those of the NI criminal justice system (CJS). The judiciary were demanding that the speed of the forensic activities be improved as a justice system awaited results from forensic analysis that traditionally was afforded all the time it needed to get the results correct. The Police Service Northern Ireland working now under new budgetary pressure demanded that forensics be commercially competitive with the private forensic market elsewhere in the UK, effectively demanding value for money. The Department of Justice (DoJ) above all had to ensure that the confidence in the justice system was never compromised while working within a new budgetary environment that was never before imposed on Northern Ireland.

We had to address the urgent ...