Lean Six Sigma: How Does It Affect Government?
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a combination of historical methods for process improvement that focuses on the bottom line and critical-to-customer requirements. This method differs from previous process improvement approaches because it uses established engineering principles and is based on institutionalization of the approach and independent validation of claims of success. LSS has been highly successful in industry, but the government has largely ignored it. This article provides an introduction to LSS and describes how the government can benefit from using "LSS thinking" in system acquisition.
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Iowa Department of Natural Resources: A Process Improvement Case Study
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is committed to continuous improvement in efficiency, quality and customer service in its permitting and business processes. To achieve this success, the agency first participated in a Business Process Improvement (BPI) event in June 2003. The weeklong event brought together staff, managers and representatives from outside the agency to work on a specific process, targeting methods to not only eliminate waste, but roadblocks and variability. Since then, the DNR has successfully conducted over a dozen additional events and led events in several additional executive branch agencies. |
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The City of Fort Wayne and Lean Six Sigma Deployment
The City of Fort Wayne strives to be a High Performance Government. Fort Wayne was one of the first governments in the country to offer Six Sigma Greenbelt and Blackbelt training to employees. Fort Wayne implemented Six Sigma to improve customer service and increase the effectiveness of city government. Six Sigma savings in Fort Wayne now total more than $10 million since 2000. Data based decision-making and empowerment of employees are key components to the success of the program. |
Financial Management: Senators Explore Federal Finances at Sparsely Attended Hearing
Lawmakers at a recent hearing on federal financial management engaged in thoughtful discussion with top administration and accountability officials, but poor turnout -- with only two senators present -- suggests a lack of attention and dedication to improving financial management. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chaired the hearing and traded time with freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., an auditor by training who has shown a strong interest in federal accountability issues.
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Management Excellence: Google Moves Ahead with Plan to Open up Federal Web Sites
Google is making strides on an initiative to make information stored on public government Web sites more accessible to people looking for it. Three federal organizations recently agreed to structure their sites to make them accessible for nearly all Internet searches, the officials said. Information on the Plain Language Web site aimed at eliminating jargon in government communications, and on sites by the Energy Department's Office of Scientific and Technical Information and the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, has been opened up to the three most popular search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. |
Process Improvement:
At the Performance Institute’s annual State Management Excellence Summit in Las Vegas, Todd Tande, the Deputy Director of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), delivered a presentation on DNR’s implementation of Six Sigma. Tande delivered the presentation to state government employees from throughout the nation who are struggling to do more with less. These attendees were looking for methodologies to eliminate non-value added steps and improve their processes. Tande’s presentation summarized the situations and challenges that DNR faced prior to implementation of Six Sigma. The department suffered from a non existent asset management framework, lack of efficient budget and fiscal controls and no comprehensive employee development or training procedures. |
Pauling Promotes Performance Outcomes
The following link is an interview with Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Material Readiness and Maintenance Policy, David V. Pauling. Pauling is promoting performance driven outcomes and process improvement at the Department of Defense. According to Pauling, “Continuous Process Improvement is a Department of Defense policy. It has been implemented by all services, and we are in the process of doing the same across the Office of Secretary of Defense. It is a process improvement. The Defense Department's CPI Transformation Guidebook, issued last May 11, indicated CPI practitioners are obligated to align their efforts to outcome-focused goals of the enterprise. You need to understand where the leverage points are on the process relative to the outcome in order to ensure you are performing a lean process, for example, on something that really makes a difference.” To read the entire article, please click on the following link. |
Washington State’s Process Improvement Efforts
The following presentation describes the Washington State Governor’s Office of Regulatory Improvement Program. Scott Boettcher, the Project Manager for the program, delivered the presentation at the 2006 National Summit on Process Improvement. The presentation summarizes Washington States efforts to streamline processes and make government more efficient for citizens. The Transportation Permit Efficiency and Accountability Committee (TPEAC) was the committee started in 2001 that drove process improvement efforts. TPEAC developed a multi-agency permit team designed to improve coordination between agencies. In addition, TPEAC was responsible for implementing user-friendly web tools to improve the permitting process and make it more accessible to citizens and stakeholders. Please click on the link below to read the entire presentation and analyze the accomplishments of TPEAC. |
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