The following resources are referenced in this course:
· Tom D. Whip Reminder Postcard
Welcome to Lean Awareness. The content covered in this course echoes what is shared in the Lean Awareness classroom and webinar sessions. Let’s begin!
By the end of this course you will: know why Lean is important to you and PA; understand Lean and its basics, be able to name the 8 wastes Lean identifies; and be able to articulate the three tools to help you get started with applying Lean right away. Before we move forward, let’s take a moment to hear from Governor Wolf and explore his thoughts on the Lean initiative.
Hello, and welcome to Lean continuous process improvement training. I am excited for each of you to learn about Lean strategies so we can engage state employees to improve how we serve the people of Pennsylvania. In my former business, I saw employees use Lean to rethink how they do their jobs. Together, we reduced wait times, simplified procedures, and put customers first. As Governor, I believe we must listen to state employees to create fundamental change with real results. The information you will receive today, and in future trainings, will provide you with the tools to apply Lean with your co-workers and programs. It is my hope that you will take these lessons and use them to help us continue to build a Government that works for Pennsylvanians… one project at a time. Thank you for your service to the Commonwealth and for your support of the Office of Performance Through Excellence.
As Governor Wolf said, we are looking to give front line employees a voice in how they do business to better improve our services for all Pennsylvanians. Too often decisions are made from a top-down perspective, however Lean encourages a more bottom-up approach, as front-line staff are most familiar with the work they do on a day-to-day basis and can better speak to (or know best) the challenges they face when navigating their processes.
As a commonwealth, we are faced with multiple challenges that need to be addressed in order to maintain the highest levels of service to our citizens. These challenges include: a reduced complement; budget cuts; and the fact that 28.7 percent of our workforce will be eligible to retire in the next four years. In line with his goal of “Government that Works”, Governor Wolf is seeking to implement a Lean culture in commonwealth agencies to help address these challenges and help streamline state services to make them easier, better, and faster. Through adopting a Lean culture, we will increase efficiency, remove waste, and rethink how we do business to improve state services and better meet the needs of our diverse customer base.
In order to move towards a Lean culture, PA’s approach to implementing Lean is to first, define our success in terms of the value we create for our customers, whether they are internal or external and make sure our efforts are geared towards the end product they want. Second, we want to empower our employees to improve the processes in which we all work. We want to make sure each of you have a voice and shared language to point out these opportunities for improvement for the benefit of everyone involved. Third, in order to empower our employees, we want to create a workplace culture of respect and employee engagement. A culture where your thoughts are heard, and you have an opportunity to positively impact processes that don’t make sense for you or your customer. Lastly, we don’t want to make decisions in an information vacuum. We want to ensure we use data and performance measures to measure our results and help drive our decision making to ensure we are acting as good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
To enact this strategy, Governor Wolf established the Office of Performance Through Excellence to help realize his vision for a Lean commonwealth. First and foremost, our office’s mission is to partner with agencies to establish trained points of contact, or Lean Leads, as resources for all employees, as well as feedback structures for agencies to receive and consider process improvement ideas. If you're not sure who your Lean Lead is, don’t worry. A document listing each agency’s Lean Lead is provided in the resources of this course. But what is Lean? Let’s take a moment to define it before moving forward.
Lean is a mindset that focuses on customer value while minimizing waste in every process. It is about continuously improving the services we offer using time-tested tools, based on the scientific method of “Plan, Do, Check, and Act”. Lean is also built on respect for people who do the work, recognizing that they are the ones who best know the challenges they are faced with in serving their customers. Those who do the work, often referred to as “Front Line staff”, also know what the customer values most about their services and can help adjust processes to ensure customer value is maximized. Lean is continuously improving by relentlessly focusing on eliminating waste by every person, at every level of the organization, every day
Lean also strives to create processes that are: Easier, Better, Faster, & Less Expensive. Keep in mind, these concepts are in that order for a reason. First, we want to make our processes easier, both for those doing the work and for our customers. Next, we want to ensure we are providing the highest quality possible every time. We also want to streamline our processes to reduce the amount time it takes to receive state services. By virtue of realizing the first three, cost savings will naturally happen, however they are not the initial focus of Lean.
Lean is not an acronym, so the letters do not stand for a saying or group of words. The word “Lean” represents a more efficient way of doing things. Lean is also not a way to reduce personnel or personnel costs. On the contrary, Lean focuses on respecting the value of employees and putting people first. Lean is also not meant to be a solution to individual employee job performance. Instead, Lean focuses on process performance and improvement. Lean is not a quick fix, though. Moving towards a Lean culture is something that takes time, effort, and an intentional application of Lean concepts and principles. Lastly, Lean is not just a “manufacturing thing.” Lean tools can be used in all types of work. Lean has been successfully implemented in government organizations such as: The US Department of Defense, the US Armed services, and the US Department of Agriculture. Beyond the federal level, Lean has also seen success in state governments such as Ohio, Washington State, and Colorado in their Dept of Transportation. These are just some of the government organizations utilizing Lean. While this list is not exhaustive, we hope it gives you a perspective that Lean has been utilized in other areas of Government with great success and further illustrates the value a Lean work culture can potentially create… but how do we get there?
The following principles guide all Lean thinking and act as a road map to establish a Lean mindset. The first concept we will explore is that “the customer defines value.”
In Lean, the value is always defined from the customer's point of view. Lean considers a customer to be anyone who uses the services, information, or product and that likely includes you. Lean further defines 3 types of value: value added; non-value added; and, non-value added but necessary. Anything that helps the customer is Value Added. This is typically anything that the customer would be willing to pay for or have their tax dollars go towards. Any part of a process that does not benefit the customer, is considered Non-Value Added. Non-Value-Added parts of a process include both those that’s that are necessary and those that are unnecessary. Non-Value Added, but Necessary, process steps have no direct benefit to the customer, but are required by law, policy, procedure, or limited by technology. Next, we’ll explore non-value added and non-value added, but necessary.
First, let’s look at non-value added. Anything that is not value added, something that does not benefit the customer and it is not required to produce a good or service, is considered unnecessary is something we should immediately try to avoid. Examples of Non-Value Added and unnecessary actions are a letter reviewed by an excessive number of supervisors before being signed and sent, and time spent searching for the right tool. In Lean, these non-value-added actions are often referred to as waste. Lean identifies several specific types of waste, which we will explore later in this training.
When looking at Non-Value Added, but Necessary, you’ll remember that anything in this category doesn’t have a direct benefit to the customer however it is currently unavoidable because it’s required by law, policy, procedure or it’s limited by technology. The important thing to remember is that you must make sure that a limitation really exists. Remember the term “Book, Chapter, Verse.” If the reason for a process is unclear and the process doesn’t add value, ask for the exact reference, or source of information, that documents that process. If it doesn’t exist, and instead is just one of those situations that is “this is the way we’ve always done things” then there’s a good chance you change it.
The next principle is understanding the value stream. This concept is often depicted as a value stream map or a process map. The value stream is how work flows through an organization or process, from the time a customer requests a service or information until that work is completed and the end product is received. Examining the value stream, and mapping it out, helps organizations see the steps that do not add value to the customer and where work slows or stops. When you understand the value stream, and steps that do and don’t add value, you are on your way to reducing waste. This creates opportunities to streamline your work. Whether you are changing a tire or hiring a new employee, each work task you do has a set of steps to follow before you reach your goal and adds value to the end result the customer receives.
The next principle we will explore, one-piece flow, is when your work product moves through stages without stopping to wait for identical work to be completed, in bulk, at each step or having to be worked on multiple times at the same step. While many of us are used to thinking about gaining efficiency by working on batches of items, Lean supports using “one-piece flow” to send one item through a process at a time. Using one-piece flow helps avoid bottlenecks and delays. It also results in higher quality output being produced more quickly. One-piece flow is also about trying to avoid rework loops and exploring the reasons they happen. A confusing question on a form might cause a forms processor to have to reach back out to the customer to get the information they need. This is just one example of a rework loop and how striving for a one-piece flow might benefit you and your agency.
Consider how your work can be streamlined to reduce the steps needed to provide our customers value.
Part of this streamlining would include letting our customers pull the value we create, which is the next principle we will discuss. We should only produce what is needed, when it is needed. This is referred to as a “pull system.” Using a pull system helps reduce waste while ensuring we are meeting our customer’s needs. A good example of a pull system involves a central list of tasks that the whole department if responsible for; a shared list. It makes the number of tasks visual to everyone. Each person works one task, and this is their work in progress, or WIP. As a task is completed, another is taken from the shared task list – just one at a time. Anything not in progress stays on the central task list. If you’re waiting on someone else for key information needed to complete a task, this task can be placed in a follow-up category. The pull system also applies to providing information to customers. Too much information presented all at once can be confusing. How can you ensure your approach is giving the customer what they need, when they need it?
The final and likely most important principle is pursuing a state of perfection. The more you practice Lean in your everyday life, the more it becomes second-nature. The more Lean is second-nature, the more opportunities you can see to be more efficient in all aspects of your work. Begin with identifying where you are at now, or your current process. Then ask yourself how you can be more Lean every day. Practice makes perfect. Every time you suggest a change to make your work better, or remove unnecessary steps, you are not only using Lean tools but reinforcing Lean behaviors. One way you can put this concept into practice is to keep an eye out for the different types of wastes Lean identifies. Let’s review at those wastes now.
Waste in Lean is defined as any activity that does not add value from the customer’s perspective. There are 7 main types of waste: Transportation, Over-Production, Motion, Defects, Waiting, Inventory, and Processing. As we review these wastes, consider how each of them might impact you in your workplace.
Transportation waste is any movement, or movement more often than necessary, of equipment, material, information, files or correspondence that does not add value.
The waste of Overproduction is producing more than is needed, faster than is needed, or earlier than is needed by the customer or next process.
Motion waste is extra steps taken or unnecessary movements made by employees to accommodate inefficient processes.
The waste of defects includes information, forms, work products or services that are incomplete or inaccurate.
The Waiting waste is time spent waiting for the next step of a work process to be completed, such as long approval times.
Inventory waste is ordering, creating and storing more than is needed, before it is needed, such as storing equipment, materials or information that is no longer used.
Processing waste is when extra process steps create more work without adding customer value.
Lean originally only identified 7 wastes, another category of waste was later added to capture the concept of wasted knowledge and expertise, or human potential. The waste of Human potential includes underutilized employee talent, skill sets, or ingenuity. As mentioned previously in this training, an integral part of PA’s Lean initiative is empowering employees and creating a workplace culture of respect, to help ensure avoid the 8th waste and fully utilize the human potential of the PA workforce.
An easy way to recall these wastes is to remember the acronym, “Tom D. Whip.” In addition, a job aid you can hang at your desk as a reminder can be found in the resources of this course.
Once you are familiar with these wastes, you may notice it in your daily work, and you are encouraged to discuss them with your work unit, with your supervisor, or with your Lean lead. These symptoms can often indicate waste:
Now that you know about the eight types of waste, let’s talk about some of the tools you can use to help eliminate them. While there are many tools, there are three that you can easily use to improve your daily work right now. They are standard work, 5S, and visual management.
Standard Work is the normal set of steps taken to complete a work activity, written down for everyone to follow. The goal of standard work is to reach a point where work is accomplished efficiently and correctly. Examples of standard work are desk manuals, checklists, and process maps. Standard work: defines the current process, reduces mistakes, and helps workers see opportunities to improve the process. After work is improved, the advances become the new baseline for further improvements. Review your work regularly to find new enhancements.
Some of the benefits of using standard work are:
One of example of standard work would be standardized training in onboarding to ensure new employees are consistently providing the same level of service to the customer. Discuss opportunities to standardize work with your supervisor or LEAN lead and be sure to involve others who do the work when establishing a new standard.
The next tool we will explore is 5S. 5S is a Lean organizational tool that helps you organize a workspace and keep it clutter-free. It is deceptively simple and can be used in both physical environments such as office supply and tool storage areas, and digital environments, such as shared drives, commonwealth forms, and e-mail folders. The goal is to ensure that work can be performed quicker, better, and safer. Basically, 5S means “a place for everything, and everything in its place.”
In the “sort” step, you should take time to identify all the various items in your workspace. One option is to remove all items from your workspace and lay them out, so they can be easily viewed. Then, sort through them to get rid of items or files that are no longer needed. Also, sort out items that belong elsewhere, and find a better place to store them.
The second step is “straighten.” Finding a place for everything and ensuring that everything is in the place that it belongs. Look at the items and develop a logical way to organize your workspace so frequently used items or files are easily available, and other items are stored separately from items you need most often. Be sure to make it obvious where these items belong so anyone can find them and put them away.
Next, “shine” your workspace by “cLeaning” the area and the items, making sure there is enough room for everything in the space without it feeling cluttered or overwhelming. In a digital environment, this might mean ensuring that pertinent information is readily apparent and able to be quickly viewed.
The fourth step is to “standardize,” which means you make a space for each item, label it if necessary, and return items to the same place every time you use them. Shadow boards for tools and labels on file cabinet drawers are good examples. For a digital environment, this would mean ensuring similar files are all stored in the same place that is clearly marked.
Lastly, “sustain” the look of your organized space. Make an effort to review your workspace on a regular basis, and check to make sure items and files are being stored in their proper locations. If they have been moved and stored elsewhere, check to see if the new space is a more logical location. When possible, use pictures, documents, and communications to help ensure others follow your organizational guidelines.
Some of the benefits of using 5S to organize your workplace:
If you are curious to learn more about how you can apply 5s, we encourage you to participate in our 5S workshop, which can be found under the “My Training” link of Employee Self Service.
The last tool we will explore during this training is Visual Management, which works in conjunction with both standard work and 5S. Visual Management is a Lean tool that helps improve communication and reaction time by allowing people to easily detect errors through visual cues. When information is consistently presented with shapes and colors or tactile sensations, it is easier to understand quickly. It is important to note that the visual management tool must be easily accessible to everyone who needs to use it, as well as easily understood. Teams should carefully consider not only the location, but also the format. It may be necessary to adapt visual management tools to accommodate the needs of employees with disabilities. Visual management also quickly shows when an error occurs.
A Visual Management environment should be clear at a glance and quickly communicate the desired information. It should also identify areas of opportunity and clearly display when something is wrong. Visual Management should also help simplify work and organization, as well as indicate the status of a process. In order to be effective, all team members should be involved in the development of a visual management tool, as well as its continuous improvement. The effectiveness of any tool depends on its use. A “to do list” would be considered a form of Visual Management. Consider what information or performance measures your office could track visually to benefit others who work in your same area. Before we wrap up the course, let’s review at some additional Lean project examples.
We can all agree that Corrections Officers work in a very stressful environment. Most phones in Corrections Institutions do not have any direct access to call outside phone lines, therefore employees had difficulty accessing SEAP services privately while at the workplace. Instead of a quick phone call, they were forced to search for a phone that had an outside line access, call the control center to be relieved, utilize the SEAP website, or just wait until they got home. Having been exposed to Lean, DOC 12-year employee, Officer Chad Martini from SCI Albion, made the suggestion using IDEA to develop a special extension for Corrections employees to dial 3333 from any phone within the prison to very simply reach SEAP directly, reducing the amount of steps needed to utilize this service. One of the main objectives of making SEAP more accessible, was eliminating the middle man and removing extra steps. This also allows for increased levels of privacy when utilizing the services. This improvement and upgrade will help ensure that employee wellness remains a focus and that Corrections personnel can have easier access to SEAP services while at the workplace, when they may need it the most.
CPR certifications are required amongst certain staff in veterans’ homes. Previously, 32% of these staff members had an up to date CPR certification. By utilizing Lean concepts, DMVA set up a standard process through an alert system to notify the agency of expiring certifications, significantly reduced the amount of time it took to recertify those who were already CPR certified by implementing a training video and standardized the way they pay for CPR cards to reduce costs. Through their improvement efforts, CPR certifications among required staff are now at 100% and DMVA has experienced annual savings of 165.5 workdays and cost avoidance of $35,424.
One of the functions the Bureau of Finance and Risk Management or “FARM” is to investigate, evaluate, and negotiate insurance claims levied against the commonwealth. Initially, the cycle-time to close a claim was approximately 83 days. This caused longer wait times for claim resolution and potential had financial implications, such as the bureau having to pay for rental vehicles. After applying the Lean concepts and utilizing the tool of process mapping, there were more than 30 improvement opportunities to explore, however they initially focused on developing a standard process for how claims were received and documented, a standard process for how claims were closed, and eliminating the need for Directors to sign off on claims less than $5,000. These changes led to a reduction in claim cycle time from 83 days down to 29 days, with additional improvements being explored to further reduce that timeframe.
When a company ceases to do business in Pennsylvania, they are required to obtain a corporate clearance certificate or affidavit that states that all taxes have been filed and paid and the business is in good standing with the Department of Revenue. On average the Revenue receives 10,000 such requests per year. Prior to the recent improvements, customers were experiencing longer than necessary wait times, on average from 12-15 months. During that timeframe, even though they are no longer in operations, Revenue’s collection efforts would continue creating frustration for the companies involved. Led by DOR employee John Klinger, Revenue put a temporary halt to their current operations and overhauled their process. During this 3 to 4-month time period, they developed a standard work process for reviewing cases, leveraged visual management, and implemented a fast track for businesses in compliance. With these enhancements, Revenue staff were able to reduce the wait time down to just 5 months for non-compliant business and just 6 weeks for compliant businesses. Additionally, Revenue experienced significant annual cost savings of $268,471! This is a powerful example of how committing to short term discomfort while dedicating time to review and improve their process provided significant long-term gains.
So now that you’ve learned more about Lean, how can you be a part of the Lean PA initiative? One way to get started is to find the 8 wastes in your day-to-day work, which will make it easier to reduce these wastes and see opportunities for projects. Review your daily processes with fresh eyes and ask if there is a better way to do the work. Start small with little improvements you can do right away and build to larger improvements. Discuss improvements with your supervisor and include others who would be impacted by the change. Identify and engage your agency Lean Leaders. These individuals have received additional training in Lean practices and can act as resources to assist with your Lean efforts. Ask for their assistance with larger and more complex projects and share improvements and projects you have done on your own. Engage others who do similar work to break down silos and share best practices. Ask your customers for feedback and consider their experience. Develop a team to explore, prioritize, and help drive process improvement ideas. Create a safe place for idea generation and discussions to happen. And finally continue to educate yourself about Lean and attend other learning opportunities through Employee Self Service, such as the Lean A3 workshops and 5S workshop, as well as the training on the 8th waste of Lean.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about the Lean and learned ways that you can be a part of the Lean Initiative. For your convenience, we have included a document in the Resources tab of this course that lists each agency’s Lean Leads as well as a helpful job aid to assist in remembering the eight wastes. In addition, if you have additional questions about the Lean Initiative in PA contact us at our resource account, ra-gvope@pa.gov.Thank you for completing the accessible version of this course. This version of the course is intended for individuals who require an accommodation for a disability. Once you have fully reviewed the information in this training, email the LSO Administrator Resource Account to request credit for completing this course. You will not receive credit for completing this course until you do so.