Government/Non-Profit

Collins Serious About Six Sigma

Chris Collins, the new Erie County executive, is making good on his promise to bringbusinessefficiency practices to the county…namely Six Sigma. In his most unusual appointments, the new executive selected Alfred Hammonds Jr. as his director of Six Sigma implementation….

Do the Public Policy Guruand#146;s get it?

Lean government is making public sector inroads through out the US. It is exciting to see this. But I am worried. Some managers seem to see it as a weapon, rather than a tool. âThe legislature is making us more…

Elections 2008

Itâs election time again in Malaysia on 8th March 2008. I picked up this interesting story from Yahoo and wish to share it with the readers here. Held once every 5 years, this article talks about âdeadâ voters in Malaysia. KUALA…

Erie County Saves a Cool 1.5 Mil

Erie County’s Six Sigma initiative is set to save 1.5 million dollars by year end.Almost a half million more than the initialgoal. Below isthe news reporting the story. Interviews with Al Hammonds, Deputy County Executive and former Six Sigma Director…

Erie County Scouting Six Sigma Talent

Al Hammonds has been appointed the new Deputy County Executive, which means Erie County is looking for a new Director of Six Sigma. “A new director for the Six Sigma program will be chosen within the next three to four…

Goodbye to the Six Sigma Mayor

Mayor Richard’s legacy, journalgazette.net, December 26, 2007 Mayor Graham Richard left office last week as Mayor of Fort Wayne Indiana. The article above describes his many accomplishments over his two terms in office, including Six Sigma: From major public projects…

Hats off to the Environmental Protection Agency – A Government Model for LEAN

For those of us involved with “LEAN” it is easy to understand the challenges that come from starting a process improvement program from the ground floor. I would like to personally thank the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for providing such…

Hello Six Sigma in Erie

Chris Collins, the new County executive of Erie County, gave an interview to WNYMedia.netrecently where he unveils the details of the Six Sigma initiative underway in the county. The video below is the Six Sigmaexcerpt of the interview. It’s only…

Introduction to Lean Government

< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Current budget constraints in the public sector require an innovative response from executives, legislators, public administrators and government employees. Legislators must set the course with directive policy, administrators must develop…

Lean adoption in the housing industry

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) released recently a study of Lean adoption at nine manufactured housing plants. HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research and the Manufactured Housing Research Alliance were sponsors of the study. The study…

Lean Federal Contract Process

Saw an article this week in the Federal Computer Week emagazine about our new President making federal contracting more efficient. This is great news and about time. http://fcw.com/articles/2009/03/04/obama-reforms-contracting.aspx?s=fcwdaily_050309 This looks very promising for the Lean Government Champions.Sounds like a job…

Lean Government Resource

This blog entry is brief. This week I met and communicated with a new Lean PractitionerJon Miller at Gemba.com. He has a great blog site at: http://www.gembapantarei.com/lean_government/ that is tracking lean government initiatives around the world. This week he tracked activity in Scotland. There is documentation of initiatives in Iowa, US Dept of Commerce and many others. Check them out!

Maine Department of Labor Lean Initiative

Applying the Principles of Lean and Public Value to Reshape a Government Agency In the fall of 2003, the Maine Department of Labor began a tailored change initiative to fundamentally alter the culture and work of the agency. Combining time-tested…

Malaysiaand#146;s fuel price hike

Last Thursday, 5th June, the Malaysian Government revamped its petrol subsidy system by increasing petrol prices by a steep 41%, from USD0.58 (RM1.92) a liter to USD0.83 (RM2.70). It is low if you guys look at it in US currency,…

Naysayers in Erie County

Six Sigma in Erie County is seeing setbacks as skeptic county legislators put a cap on the Six Sigma budget. The initial one million dollars planned has been slashed to $120,000. “I’m one of the skeptics, I believe. They didn’t…

New iSixSigma Military Channel

iSixSigma launcheda new website last week,Six Sigma in the Military, complete with storiesabout how the U.S. Military is using Six Sigma. The purpose of this iSixSigma Military channel is to document the transformation of the United States Armed Services through…

Professional Value Stream?

I have recently been transferred back to a professional service position as a Rehabilitation Counselor in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. This is a long standing federal program that helps individuals with severe disabilities train for, maintain and obtain…

Public Deployment of Lean Strategies

The Lean government paradigm promotes the analysis and implementation of efficient administrative and customer service process in order to reduce the cost of government while maintaining quality customer citizen service. Some have characterized this with the phrase “do more with…

Revisiting Henry Ford

I have been re-reading Henry Fords book “My Life and Work”. I got the idea to re-read this from Walter Lowell, the Lean Initiative Director at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. It is available as an e-book…

Six Sigma Goes to the Pound

We can add one more U.S. city to the roster of those using Lean Six Sigma to better serve their citizens. Hattiesburg, Mississippi is following the Six Sigma example of Fort Wayne and Erie County. A couple of projects are…

Six Sigma Lean Government Conference

Just a brief note of a great conference coming up on May 18 & 19, 2006 in Alexandra, Virginia. Sponsored by The Performance Institute,The Lean Six Sigma for Government Conference will provide first hand case studies about government agencies where…

Six Sigma Politics

If Fort Wayne Indianais the Six Sigma City, we just might see a Six Sigma County on the horizon…if Christopher C. Collins is elected as the Erie County Executive. He believes that good government can be achieved through good business….

Six Sigma: The Laissez Faire of Politics

As I’m reading the newspaper, I notice two articles from different countries, Australia and China, both about eliminating plastic bag usage in retail outlets by the end of 2008. The Australian article focused on the benefits and did provide a…

Six Steps to Lean Government

This blog is not for the experienced six sigma practitioners, but rather for those government managers trying to get an overview of howa lean initiative might fit with their current strategic planning. I came up with a basic 6 step…

State of Maine – CI-Pand#146;s Visit Lonza.

On Monday June 1, 2009 Continuous Improvement Practitioners (CI-P), from the State of Maine “Bend the Curve” initiative, led by Walter Lowell, conducted a study mission at Lonza in Rockland Maine. To quote from the Lonza web site, “Lonza is…

Transformation is the New Operating System in Maine

I have been contemplating organizational transformation over the last few months. Jim Womak at the Lean Institute has started a new research project that is collecting organizational development results from various lean projects in the public sector. He has encouraged…