Denver’s Excise and Licenses Department 6S’d over 300,000 files in One Rapid Improvement Event

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Excise and Licenses (EXL) department of the City and County of Denver was hard at work identifying what they needed to innovate to adapt to the current circumstances. They had a Rapid Improvement Event focused on streamlining and reorganizing their EXL Shared Drive. 

The Action Plan

  • The Rapid Improvement Event began by deciding on what types of files belonged and which ones should be removed (outdated files, personal files, loose shortcuts, etc.).
  • The group created standard work that outlined naming conventions, a maintenance schedule, and rules for keeping the drive clutter-free.
  • To help reinforce the naming standards, an abbreviation guide was created.
  • The group then met at 30, 60, and 90-days to discuss the results of their innovation and update on any outstanding action items.

The Metrics and Outcomes

  • The innovation improved the way EXL employees felt about using the shared drive, improving their average satisfaction score from a 4/10 to a 9/10.
  • The total number of files was reduced from 306,520 all the way down to 124,000 Files.
  • The number of top-level folders was reduced from 126 down to 11 (folders designated for each team, and an archive folder).
  • The error rate of misplaced files was reduced from 31.3% down to just 10%.
  • The streamlined Shared Drive was ready to transition to a cloud-based SharePoint to improve accessibility while working remotely.
  • This innovation led to an annual soft savings of $72,707.70 (1,960.83 hours per year).

Read the entire article at https://denpeakacademy.com/2021/02/03/how-denver-exl-6sd-over-300000-files-in-one-rapid-improvement-event/