The state of Nebraska launched the Center of Operational Excellence in 2016 to change the culture in state government and train state teammates in Process Improvement. Since May 2016, the COE has facilitated 575 process improvement projects, saving over 630,000 of work that has led to being able to put more of a focus on […]
Overwhelmed!! That’s the word Joy E. Mason hears most often when she asks leaders how they feel about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Leaders are finding themselves overwhelmed by recent demographic and cultural shifts and the uncertainty of what to do next. Unfortunately, traditional DEI training doesn’t appear to have the answers that leaders desperately […]
Hugh Alley is an experienced lean practitioner and industrial engineer, who has experience with the Toyota Kata method of improvement. He has recently applied this approach to a nonprofit food bank in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, based on the KataLab approach developed in Montreal by Jean-Marc Legentil, Marc-Olivier Legentil and Sylvain Landry. He explains […]
Matthew Singh is the Director of Operational Excellence and Master Black Belt for the Department of Administrative Services in the state of Nebraska and has 20 years of experience in progressive management roles. In this interview with Patrick Adams of the Lean Solutions Podcast, they discuss his work in the state of Nebraska and the […]
This video shows how Lean Six Sigma training has helped support the State of Nebraska’s quick response to the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic across many state agencies through Daily Huddles and timely coordination. Watch the full video below, or go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00rbAS2Z4qo
The Center of Operational Excellence helped the Nebraska Department of Transportation (DOT) reduce the Right of Way Permitting process from 68 steps to 20 steps by eliminating the performance guarantee payment and reimbursement transactions for utilities, saving time, paper, shipping costs and labor. The results led to turnaround time of 2-3 weeks down to 5-10 […]
While it is well known that facilitating homogeneous teams is probably more straightforward and might provide solutions quicker, diverse teams are more likely the ones to propose breakthrough solutions. Author Alessandro Lasi explains an example where adding a new HR Director to the team led to a proposal idea that greatly challenged the status quo, […]
Isaac Hughley, Process Improvement Specialist with the Indiana Department of Revenue presented at the monthly Indianapolis ASQ section meeting in September 2021. He discussed how kaizen events can be used in the public sector to address complex and unique challenges (especially during a pandemic). He shares an example of a kaizen event in which the […]
Ann Moses of King County government (in Seattle) talks about a unique lean Green Belt program that integrates Racial Equity and Social Justice. As one of her IT Department’s lead racial equity trainers, when Ann received her lean Black Belt she saw a deep alignment and affinity between lean values and racially equity and social […]
As part of the county’s strategic plan, Miami-Dade County in Southeast Florida launched a Six Sigma Green Belt DMAIC project to reduce the # of days to provide direct relief assistance payments to domestic violence victims. This project supports the County’s 2020 strategic plan under the following objectives: HS1: Basic needs of vulnerable Miami Dade […]