DAS-PSB was awarded financing through the 2014 innovation fund to implement a countywide LEAN initiative. LEAN is a process improvement practice that helps organizations function more efficiently by critically analyzing burdensome processes, including those that are administrative and those that directly impact our constituents. By streamlining and improving these processes, the County expects to improve the value and sustainability of its core services.
A cross-department workgroup of individuals involved in a particular process gather and, with the help of independent facilitators, map out the steps of the process and then investigate which steps should be changed to improve that process. Steps that actually provide value to customers and the organization are kept and possibly improved. For instance, a group of individuals who are involved in the process of issuing a permit will gather and look at which steps of the permitting process could be modified so that it requires less time and work to issue the permit.
The County has engaged a consultant to help set up an ongoing LEAN effort. This will include a steering committee, which will review requests for processes to be analyzed; and a group of facilitators who will work with cross-departmental teams to examine processes and develop options to make efficiency improvements. The County’s goal is to emulate the successes realized with LEAN in Brown County, Wisconsin and the City of Denver, Colorado, and to empower employees to provide value to constituents through a culture of continuous process improvement.
You may click here to review a presentation on LEAN management that provides more detailed information on the County’s LEAN journey.
Milwaukee County Office of Performance, Strategy & Budget 