Paul received this encouraging email from Darrell Damron (reprinted with permission):
Thank you for helping Washington state government on our journey to deliver better value to more Washingtonians. We’re so grateful for all of you (our Lean Expert Partners) who have been so generous in giving us advice, training, coaching, and/or letting us tour many of your organizations.
To give you just a glimpse of what’s happening on our Lean journey, I’m including this article we posted internally this week. While these are just a few of the results from the 500+ improvement projects we have done in more than 50 state agencies, we are also making some important leadership/management system changes – like organizing and aligning 53 state agency directors, policy, and budget folks into 5 goal councils – each goal council is focused on delivering specific results to Washingtonians (see www.results.wa.gov). We have a long way to go, and we’re enormously grateful for you advice and help.
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Lean Improvements Making a Difference By Wendy Korthuis-Smith, Director of Results Washington
With Public Service Recognition Week around the corner, it’s a good time to recognize some of the great Lean work that employees are doing throughout state government.
There’s a lot going on. Hundreds of Lean improvement efforts — big and small — are under way. Employees are generating ideas to streamline their work, keeping a strong focus on the customer. In no particular order, here’s a small sampling of improvement efforts:
· The Washington State Patrol and the Department of Enterprise Services worked together to overhaul an archaic paper application system for trooper candidates. The Patrol has also used Lean to dramatically speed up background checks and the outfitting work mechanics do on patrol cars. DES has been a leader using Lean, with many improvements in progress.
· The Department of Revenue’s Taxpayer Services division, which faces a flood of calls from tax filers every January, made a number of employee-suggested improvements. It created a much simpler form for businesses that owe little in taxes. It made returns available to customers earlier. And it launched an online chat service to respond to questions. Wait times for customers have shrunk and the work is more manageable.
· The Department of Social and Health Services has used Lean to save nearly $21 million for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and to speed up Child Protective Services investigations. It has worked closely with stakeholders to make client notices shorter and easier to understand. DSHS has also used Lean to sharply cut costs of client X-rays. And it’s worked with the Employment Security Department to improve assistance for clients searching for work.
· The Liquor Control Board, which received a flurry of public record requests related to marijuana legalization, has nearly cut in half the time it takes to respond.
· The Department of Transportation, which receives more than 100,000 vehicle collision reports each year, has cut by nearly 90 percent the time it takes to analyze reports and make data available to customers and the public. WSDOT’s sign shop in Yakima has also used Lean improvements to more than double the number of signs it makes.
These are just a few examples of continual improvement efforts that state agencies are tackling. Keep up the great work!
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Thanks again for your help, and we look forward to continuing to learn from you on this journey.
Darrell Damron
Enterprise Lean Consultant
Results Washington
Office of the Governor
www.results.wa.gov
Follow me on Twitter: @LeanWAGOV
Follow Results WA on Twitter: @ResultsWA