Lean Kaizen Streamlines Temporary Restricted License Application Process at Iowa DOT

Over the years, Iowa state government has been involved with numerous improvement processes, with varying degrees of success.  One improvement tool now in action in the Iowa DOT’s Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) is the Kaizen process, supported by the Iowa Department of Management’s (DOM) Office of Lean Enterprise.

Mark Lowe, MVD director, says his group chose the temporary restricted license (TRL) issuance system to go under the microscope in Kaizen sessions Dec. 6-10, 2010.

Lowe said, “We chose the TRL process because there have been changes to the law recently and we knew the process wasn’t working as well as we would like.”

The TRL process team set lofty goals, reducing lead time by 50 percent, from 30 to 15 days, and reducing the number of steps in the process by half.

At the end of the Kaizen session, which in this case, took 4.5 working days, there was a plan in place to change the process right away.

Read more at: https://dom.iowa.gov/press-release/2011-02-01/lean-kaizen-streamlines-trl-application-process