Outagamie County Uses Lean to Dispose their Surplus Property

The Finance Department for Outagamie County in Appleton, Wisconsin, chose to examine how they dispose of surplus property for their LEAN project.

Value stream mapping was used to visualize the length of each process and how much staff time was involved. After that, some of these implements were made:

  • The Surplus Items listing on the intranet was discontinued
  • Departments are to notify the Purchasing Coordinator of any used items for which they may have a current or future need
  • The Purchasing Coordinator will check this Wish List when items become available for disposal and contact the department to see if they are still interested in the item
  • Surplus items consisting of office furniture and equipment must have an estimated value estimated value of $300 or more to be listed

After the implementations, a cost-benefit analysis determined that:

  • The threshold for surplus items increased from $100 to $300 due to time spent by Purchasing and Maintenance
  • The GovDeals sliding fee scale is reasonable as compared to live auction fees

Read more about the project at https://www.outagamie.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=28051

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