Research activities often involve enrolling human subjects as volunteers to participate in research studies. Federal regulations mandate that research institutions are responsible for protecting the ethical rights and welfare of human subjects from research risks. This is usually accomplished by requiring approval of research protocols by an institutional review board (IRB) through a review process that is often complicated and time-consuming. The aim of this research was to reduce the time to obtain IRB approval/denial decisions for research protocols. Through a case study, this research addressed this issue within a leading public research university using the Lean Six Sigma methodology, a structured, problem-solving approach for improving process performance. Analyzing the IRB review process and implementing solutions to address the root cause(s) of lengthy processing times helped to streamline this process, which enhanced investigators' ability to conduct their research in a timely manner, while also ensuring compliance with federal regulations for human subject research.