Category: Government/Non-Profit

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 weeks, Collins said. The hope is that the new hire will be easier to find […]

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. The legislature is making us more accountable so we have to do something or else? Do more with less? Cut staff so we can […]

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 from The Project Gutenberg (see below). In this wonderful book Ford talks about how he […]

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 name me Doubting Thomas for nothing,” Legislator Thomas J. Mazur, D-Cheektowaga, said Thursday. “I am […]

It’??s 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 dead voters in Malaysia. KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia has found nearly 9,000 people aged more than 100 on its […]

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 already underway… Hattiesburg city employees Julia Lowe, an Urban Development accountant, and Maj. Billy Lane […]

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 few statistics, such as the number of bags used annually, estimated % decrease of landfill […]

Chris Collins, the new County executive of Erie County, gave an interview to WNYMedia.net recently where he unveils the details of the Six Sigma initiative underway in the county. The video below is the Six Sigma excerpt of the interview. It’s only two minutes long and worth the watch. You can tell Collins has got his […]

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 that will distinguish the city’s landscape for decades to the minutiae of using Six Sigma […]

Chris Collins, the new Erie County executive, is making good on his promise to bring business efficiency 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. Six Sigma is the business-sector efficiency discipline Collins championed during his campaign. Hammonds, […]

iSixSigma launched a new website last week, Six Sigma in the Military, complete with stories about 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 the use of Lean Six Sigma and related process improvement methodologies. Ronald […]

If Fort Wayne Indiana is 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. The Buffalo News reports: Collins’ candidacy is built on his remarkable success in turning […]

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 highlights the benefits of Lean to making production of manufacturing housing more efficient and improving […]

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 gainful employment within their functional capacities. The program was initially started for injured military personnel […]

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 less.” While this reflects a public policy that would shrink the size of government just […]

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 all who have thoughts to contact him. The driving question is: “What is the best […]

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 Lean Six Sigma tools are being successfully used. You can review the details at: […]

This blog entry is brief. This week I met and communicated with a new Lean Practitioner, Jon 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 […]

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 “lean” principles from the manufacturing sector with the emerging public sector strategy of “public value,”* […]

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 process that can be easily committed to memory and turned into a mantra of sorts. […]

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 the management plan and government employees must remain flexible and committed to the personal transformation required to do public business in a new leaner way. […]

The U.S. Army Materiel Command has a website dedicated to information about the Lean Six Sigma efforts currently underway. There is even an entire page devoted to Lean Six Sigma project case studies and results. Over 20 success stories are shared including a video that highlights the ways Lean Six Sigma is directly impacting U.S. […]