Lean Government Resources

The following is a compilation of resources on Lean Government initiatives and other resources. Please contact us if know of additional resources that should be listed here.

Local Government Initiatives

The City of Cape Coral, FL

 The City of Cape Coral, Florida has been implementing Lean Government since at least 2007.

"The City of Cape Coral was awarded the Strategic Leadership Award by the International City/County Management Association for the Lean Government System." (Reference)

Video interview with Ms. Wanda Roop (Windows Media Player).  Ms. Roop is the Lean Government Coordinator for the City of Cape Coral.

"We have conducted 18 events in seven City departments resulting in about $2 million in cost savings and/or cost avoidance,” said Stewart.  'The goal in every event is to increase productivity and reduce cost without sacrificing quality and the service to our citizens.'

Some of the many successes include:

• Team reduced the time to obtain a permit for construction from 21 days to eight days.
• Time required to hire a firefighter went from 66 days to 30 days.
• Lot mowing time was reduced from 52 days to 19 days to mow the grass once and send a notice of violation to the property owner.
• The cycle time for first reviews in Site Plan Development initially decreased to five days from 28 days.  The time currently is eight days." (Reference)
  

City of Fort Wayne, IA

"Former Mayor Richard's vision to bring a high powered private sector program to government has not only enhanced services for Fort Wayne citizens, but has also created a culture of renewed enthusiasm among employees to do their jobs better."

Performance is the Best Politics

Former mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne, Indiana has even written a book, "Performance is the Best Politics."

"The cost of water main replacements has dropped from $61 per foot to $49 per foot. The new process has saved the City more than $317,000. Other benefits include decreased service interruptions, improved water quality, better fire projection, and controlled utility rates." (Reference) (PDF)

"The City avoided having to pay $1.7 million to improve equipment at the plant. The project also resulted in a savings of $28,000 a year. Other benefits include increased capacity at the plant and a reduction in combined sewer overflows." (Reference) (PDF)

Results Achieved to Date

State Initiatives

The Iowa Department of Management, Office of Lean Enterprise

“During the 81st General Assembly, legislation was passed that authorized the Department of Management to lead the expansion of Lean efforts in Iowa state government. The Office of Lean was created within the Department of Management to promote and facilitate continuous improvement through the use of a specific set of proven tools and methodologies collectively known as Lean. This Web site serves as the central location of information and resources to assist state agencies in their Lean journey.”

Lean Day Proclamation by Chester J. Culver, Governor of the State of Iowa (PDF)

Results Achieved to Date

"Government agencies throughout Iowa are applying the kaizen event methodology and lean principals to streamline the workflow and find permanent solutions to chronic problems."  Iowa case study (PDF)

)

Minnesota Enterprise Lean

The State of Minnesota has an initiative called "Enterprise Lean."  They recently celebrated their 100th improvement event (Kaizen event.)  A newspaper article was written about their initiative and appeared in the Minneapolis -  St. Paul Star Tribune.

Note also:

"In the volatile legislative environment, changes are often made to Health Care Eligibility and Access (HCEA) policy. The Department of Human Services (DHS), prior to the Kaizen event, had no formal process for legislative policy implementation. Despite the unpredictability of the legislative process, the HCEA team created a process for planning and policy implementation that will reduce the time to implement new legislative policy from an average of 10.6 months to 3.7 months." (Reference)

The State of Ohio Lean Results Page

 "The Ohio Government Accountability Plan is a roadmap to a lean, competitive, modern government that is critical player in Ohio's economic growth. It is a plan that allows us to live within our means and invest in what matters by focusing on core goals and directing state government and the budget toward meeting those goals."

Results Achieved to Date

Comment from a Kaizen event held by the Ohio Department of Juvenile and Family Services on December 15, 2008:

“To see the Kaizen process work firsthand was truly phenomenal,” Horn said. “The group pushed the
methods established under Kaizen beyond normal expectations and came out on the other side successful. We fully expect to be able to reach a goal that was first thought to be unobtainable. When people are shown they can accomplish something they first thought impossible, they become unstoppable. That’s the excitement of Kaizen.”  CPAO News Today Article (PDF)

Value Stream Mapping in the State of Delaware

 Delaware has a small website with some information on Value Steam Mapping.  There are some interesting presentations here as well.

Connecticut Department of Labor Lean Government

The Connecticut Department of Labor has some web pages associated with its "Lean Government Services" program.

Maine Department of Labor

The Maine Department of Labor has a Lean initiative ("Bend the Curve").  Note that this initiative seems to be in trouble; from what I have I have read, it looks like it's losing momentum.  Comments in this document are interesting.  This might be a good example of focusing improvement on something other than the constraint and the initiative then dying out over time due to lack of significant results.  Another perspective would be to ask why this group is not using their improvement methodology to overcome the problems that are causing improvement to die out.  (Granted, it's always easier to speculate about such things from outside the system.)

Other Initiatives and Resources

of Lean Government and other process improvement events.

From their website:

"The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) is the national non-profit, non-partisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders. The purpose of ECOS is to improve the capability of state environmental agencies and their leaders to protect and improve human health and the environment of the United States of America. Learn more about us here."