By 2009, four years after Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, there were 8,000-plus displaced homeowners in the New Orleans area still struggling to move back home, but who didn’t have money or insurance for repairs. Worse, they were being joined by an increasing number of homeowners who had suffered contractor fraud. “We had […]
The lean principles of the Toyota Production System are changing how New Orleans and the U.S. recovers from disasters. With help from the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), they’d become unstuck, slashing lead time to just 60 days and dramatically increasing the number of quality homes rebuilt monthly. Read more at LEI: https://www.lean.org/common/display/?o=3016
Written by Brion
Netia Ingram serves as the citywide marijuana management analyst in Denver, Colorado. Netia worked across departments to analyze call data from 311 about citizen marijuana questions. The questions were complex and controversial in nature and left employees and callers feeling overwhelmed. Netia pulled data on the questions being asked and worked with many departments and […]
Written by Brion
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s “Peak Performance” effort he launched in his first year in office has sought to improve the ways city employees could offer suggestions for giving better service to city residents. Using city employee-created ideas, some of the following improvements have been made to the City of Denver: Vehicle owners can renew or register […]
Written by Brion
Like many community-service organizations, Trinity Rescue Mission was hurting. It was 2011. The economy had not recovered from the recession. Providing food, shelter and hope for homeless people in Jacksonville was harder than ever. “We needed help,” says Matt Heavener, Trinity’s development director. To Trinity’s rescue came a brainy collaboration of servant leaders and college […]
Written by Brion
The historical city of Amersfoort in the Netherlands has introduced lean thinking and practice in local government to provide better and faster services to its citizens. Their lean journey started in one department in late 2009 with two small projects. Even though there was no plan in place at the beginning, it spread like an […]
Written by Brion
Matt Horvat wanted to make a difference using lean thinking. so he started a community of lean-minded people with the intention of doing pro-bono consulting for nonprofits. Read the history of how Lean Portland began through a guest post on the Lean Enterprise Institute website. Read more at: https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=426
Written by Brion
El Paso City Manager, Tommy Gonzalez, proposed a budget that allocated $50,000 for Lean Six Sigma training. He said, “When it comes to government efficiency, there are multitudes of skeptics and naysayers. However, streamlining operations, achieving cost savings and improving service are all within reach for any public-sector agency.” Pothole repairs were the public works department’s focus. […]
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El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, wanted to ensure that all employees were empowered to serve as agents of change. Some of the greatest innovations and improvements come not from the top down, but from the bottom up. The city challenged each department to look within and identify areas for enhancing performance or streamlining operations, […]
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Andrew Parris with World Vision Institute talks about how he helps implement Lean Six Sigma in East Africa. He helped train 56 Lean Six Sigma Green Belts and 11 Black Belts, trained 450 people in Process Excellence Energizer training, saved $1.5 million in procurement costs. Other projects include reducing recruitment time from 130 to 41 […]
Written by Brion