Governemnt

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. Read More
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Six Sigma Goes to Washington: Public Agencies, from the Navy to the City, Improve Quality

Six Sigma has proven its worth to the manufacturing industry, causing the education, health care and service industries to sit up and take note. Governments, though, have been slower to respond to the methodology’s potential. This is understandable. Governments, whether local or federal, have huge and entrenched bureaucracies, and they lack the all-important market incentive for change. Waste in governmental processes is usually hidden in masses of paperwork, behind bureaucrats who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The predictable result has been more of the same in municipalities across the country. Read More
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Deep Thinkers

Lean six sigma, a management term with a cult-like following in the private sector, is quickly gaining converts among Defense and civilian agencies. It started as a tool to improve how work gets done in Japanese car factories in the 1940s and morphed into a symbol of corporate efficiency in the 1990s. Now lean six sigma has turned into the latest government catchphrase for eliminating waste and reducing errors. Read More
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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. Read More
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Using Lean Six Sigma as the Basis for the Project Management Scorecard

Statistical and process improvement tools are an integral part of using Lean Six Sigma for PM scorecards. Without these powerful methodologies, PM would regress into a collection of vague concepts. It is the PM technical toolset that enables rigor in managing projects. Senior management does not necessarily need to understand the mechanics of how each tool works, or the underlying mathematics. They do need to understand how the methodology fits in with the larger picture of project management. Read More
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Challenges of Discrete and Attribute Data Measurement

More than ever, companies today realize the importance of measurement – everything from measuring performance to measuring gap closure – in order to achieve goals. Measurement is the process of estimating the ratio of the magnitude of a quantity to a unit of the same type. A measurement is the result of such a process, normally expressed as the multiple of a real number and a unit, where the real number is the ratio. For example, nine meters is an estimate of an object's length relative to a unit of length, one meter. Read More
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Six Sigma in a Small Business

As a small business owner, you will eventually sense the need for Six Sigma implementation in your business. Typically, yours is a 3-5 year old company on the threshold of expanding your operations to meet the growing customer expectations but is cornered to optimize your resources on generating more sales than anything else. Small companies in the bracket of 50-100 employees (most of them being non technical) and revenue of $10-15 million find themselves in this fix. The predicament at this stage is one of a person who is caught between a tiger and cliff. The situation needs to be given a rational thought concerning how many resources can be afforded and whether the time has really come for Six Sigma. The cost of hiring consultants being hardly affordable, you have to explore options like hiring a Black Belt and having some of your employees trained in-house for Green Belt positions. Read More
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Let's imagine that your initial Six Sigma projects have achieved their goals. Now what? Six Sigma is dedicated at making permanent changes to re-align your process through the implementation of metrics. It enables you to know what you can expect from your people and processes. By maintaining and controlling that performance, you keep the value and purpose of your Six Sigma efforts in the forefront of all your activities, both today and into the future. Six Sigma helps you identify what you don't know, indicates what you should know, and helps you reduce defects that cost time, money, opportunities, and customers. Will you achieve a six-sigma level of quality, only 3.4 million defects per million opportunities—99.9997 percent perfect? That's really not the question. The question is “How much are process variations and defects costing you?” Read More
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Delivering Two Types of Quality

As I write this, the petroleum executive sitting next to me on the plane has carefully unpacked his Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones and iPod nano, which has me thinking about the meaning of quality. The Japanese actually have two words for quality -- and an understanding of each is necessary to compete today. More than 20 years after the quality craze kicked off in the U.S. [primarily because America was getting its clock cleaned by the Japanese], quality remains an elusive target for many American companies. Not that we haven't made progress. In 1980 the average car produced by Ford (F) had twice as many product flaws [as measured by J.D. Power's survey of initial quality] as the average Japanese car. By 1986 the Japanese auto industry lead over Ford had shrunk from 100% to about 20%, as Ford made quality "Job One." But since that impressive initial spurt of progress, many U.S. companies have struggled to keep up on quality, even as the Japanese began building more of their products in the U.S. with American workers. Read More
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Value Metrics Extend Lean Thinking into the Demand Chain

Lean Thinking has been all about eliminating waste in the production of products or services – until now. Recent studies using the metrics of customer value now reveal that many value-adding activities extend beyond production and reside in the distribution of those products and services. Based on research across both manufacturing and services industries, a new publication from ASQ’s Quality Press, Value-Driven Channel Strategy: Extending the Lean Approach, reveals that Lean initiatives take on a much more strategic quality when extended into channels of distribution, and when driven by the voice of the customer. Nominated for the prestigious Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing, Value-Driven Channel Strategy extends the tools of Lean beyond the supply chain and into the demand chain. Read More
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Six Sigma Pitfalls

Developing Six-Sigma programs for business process improvement has become the latest craze for many companies, having evolved into full-fledged programs with unique training regimens and belt-based hierarchies. But are these programs delivering on their promise? Are differences in implementation creating different results? If so, how can managers ensure that optimal results are achieved and how can an executive ensure long-term longevity to this program? What are the pitfalls to a successful Six-Sigma program? Read More
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Companies With Mature Six Sigma Deployments Apply Six Sigma to IT Processes More Often Than Less Experienced Practitioners, Survey Says

According to the Information Technology and Six Sigma survey released in the May/June 2006 issue of iSixSigma Magazine (www.isixsigma-magazine.com), "Companies that had been using Six Sigma for seven or more years were nearly four times more likely to focus projects on improving IT processes than those that had been using Six Sigma for less than three years," said Marx. "They were also much more likely to integrate IT methods with Six Sigma and to align IT projects with business priorities." Read More
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Comparing Lean Six Sigma to the Capability Maturity Model

The Capability Maturity Model® has been widely used by the government to evaluate contractors as part of the acquisition process for large, complex systems and has been used by contractors to improve their software processes. Whereas this approach makes sense, both the government and industry can do better by including Lean Six Sigma in their process improvement and acquisition approaches. In this article, the two concepts are compared; examples of organizations using Lean Six Sigma for software are presented. Read More
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 State and Local Government

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. Read more at (attach word document)
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Michigan Department of Environmental Quality: A Process Improvement Case Study

The purpose of the Air Permit Team is to develop and implement an air permitting process that results in expeditious issuance of environmentally sound, operationally flexible, and achievable permits in a time frame not to exceed 6 months and ensure requirements are identified clearly prior to submittal reducing rework in the process by 90%. The Air Quality Division began reviewing Permit to Install (PTI) applications using a reengineered review process in September 2004. The review process was reengineered by the DEQ working in conjunction with industry representatives using the lean Value Stream Mapping (VSM) method. Based on feedback from key stakeholders, DEQ set the "future state" goal of having all applications reviewed and acted upon in less than six calendar months. The new process has allowed the Air Quality Division to perform technical analyses quickly and efficiently, eliminating unnecessary delays and wasted efforts. One year after completing the reengineering, the time needed to process air permits decreased by two-thirds (66 percent). Read More
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North Carolina Department of Transportation: A Process Improvement Case Study

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is committed to developing and improving its processes and programs through maximization of existing resources and continual process improvement. The Department has undertaken several environmental process improvement efforts that utilize a structured facilitation methodology called the TransTIP Methodology. This methodology is structured around six incremental steps: (1) commit to the process and performance improvement; (2) select and scope the selected current process through interviews and planning; (3) analyze the current process; (4) design a new process; (5) implement the new process; and (6) manage the new process and performance. Read More
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Water Quality Compliance Determination Process Improvement (6 Sigma) Project

In February 2005, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) conducted a survey to help understand customers' views with regard to the wastewater treatment facility compliance determination process. The MPCA was looking for input not only regarding customer expectations and current MPCA performance, but more importantly for areas that needed improvement. The MPCA hopes to improve in an area identified both internally and externally to maximize its effectiveness. Read More
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County of Santa Barbara Ministerial Permitting Process Improvement: Selected Improvements

The link below provides a summary of the complete recommendations from the Santa Barbara Ministerial Permitting Process Improvement Team, with an emphasis on those recommendations that are most crucial. The document outlines improvement recommendations for reaching out to applicants and permit agents, sending out a complete submittal package the first time, revamping the process of case assignment, revamping case management processes, providing consistent case processing and determinations, simplifying and standardizing zoning ordinances, upgrading management, supervisory and personnel practices, improving training, instutionilizing knowledge and more. Read More
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The Economic Impact of Accelerating Permit Processes on Local Development and Government Revenues

Delays in local permit processes have been costly and frustrating for architects, engineers, developers, general contractors, local government officials, and building occupants for many years. Numerous budgetary and institutional constraints have limited the ability of government officials to adopt meaningful reforms.

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