This article is an excerpt from my ebook offered by Amazon.com.
In1997 Osborne and Gaebler published a very popular important book “Reinventing Government”. The point of the book was in showing how the entrepreneurial spirit was transforming government. Although they had plenty of examples the difficulty they experienced was in defining just what the entrepreneurial spirit is exactly and how does one capture it and apply it. A second follow-up book “Banishing Bureaucracy-The five strategies for Reinventing Government” by Osborne and Plastrik sought to correct the short comings of the first book. The second book although a success in sales failed to deliver a step by step approach which could be followed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness and bring innovation to an organization. Although their outcomes were right on track with their desire for fixing the organization’s systems, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness, and the capacity to innovate. Their focus was on changing an organization’s: purpose, incentives, accountability, power structure and culture. The problem was that they did not have a standardized approach to implementation leaving the implementer with too many undefined paths to follow. A second problem is that their approach was to sell the method to each bureaucracy which left the effort politically dead on arrival. There was no incentive for a bureaucracy to buy in to such major changes. The results were disappointing and everyone soon forgot about reinventing government.
Ref. Osborne and Plastrik book, Banishing Bureaucracy The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government, published by Addison Wesley Publishing Co. 1998 p. 10.
We now know how to harness the “entrepreneurial spirit” and make it work for us. The use of the powerful tool “Enterprise Lean” fixes the organizations systems and “Reform Models” provide the missing step by step approach for reinventing an organization. We avoid the second problem of selling the process to a bureaucracy simply by having the whole process managed by those government leaders who have oversight for the budget of the bureaucracy. The reason is that it is virtually impossible to make such major changes from within a bureaucracy.
We can now reinvent government by leveraging innovation throughout government using Enterprise Lean. We already know how to fix the systems of government by implementing Enterprise Lean Now by leveraging this same innovative process throughout government we can transform the entire government. What we are transforming is the way that government does things and the way it is organized making it efficient and effective and the public gets what it wants “a government that works”.
Please Review the Following Articles:
Article 1. The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Lean Six Sigma and Enterprise Lean
Article 2. Massive Savings Through Massive Simplification of Government
Article 5. Proposal to Implement Enterprise Lean in California State Government
Article 11. The Failure of Bureaucratic Government In Missouri
Article 12. Lawrence Rosier's State Reform Models
Article 23. Proposal to GAO for Pilot implementation of General Reform Model
Article 24. Proposal for Missouri State Enterprise Lean
Article 33. Proposal for a Pilot Demo Reform of a Ford Dept Office
Article 46. Reinventing Texas Government to Operate Like a Private Business
Article 47. Technical Guide to State Government Reform
Article 48. Consolidation of Government Duplicated Services
Article 49. The Effectiveness Test, a Tool for Reforming Government
Article 69. Using Enterprise Best Practices at the VA
Article 70. Enterprise Lean, Balanced Work Load, Continuous Improvement
Article 71. Three levels of Throughput- Current, Capable and Required
Article 73. Fundamental Innovation at the VA
Article 76. Detailed Description of the Throughput Process
Article 77. Aug 13 Proposed Consulting Agreement with VA
Article 78. Its All About Leveraging Labor and Knowledge
Article 79. Simplify and Then Reform Government
Article 80. Technical Guide to Company Reform
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Article 24. Proposal for Missouri State Enterprise Lean
This proposal was ignored by State Bureaucrats with Savings Estimated at $200 million.
This is an indirect approach which one can use to stem the growth of Missouri’s government and make state Government efficient and effective. My indirect approach using Enterprise Lean as a start has a better chance of being implemented because it has achieved successful results in: Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan (with reservations). Who would vote against making Missouri’s government more efficient. The implementation of Enterprise Lean is only the first of several major reforms that follow. I recommend the implementation of a State Reform Commission as an independent part of the State Auditors Office . This is necessary to prevent the states bureaucracies from controlling the Enterprise Lean implementation and preventing the implementation of the reforms I recommend.
My recommended indirect reform approach; Install Enterprise Lean throughout the State government (easier to sell because other states are doing it). Then follow up with Right-Sizing (makes sure all employees have a full time job), bottoms-up budgeting, changing the bureaucracy to Team Management and followed by other Reform Models.
Please Review the following Proposal for the implementation of Enterprise Lean in the Missouri state government. The document is intended to be used to promote understanding and to start discussion on consulting activities. This proposal may be altered to meet state guidelines.
Lawrence Rosier & Associates
Management Consultants Government Reform
12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla, Missouri 65401
Phone 573-364-8789 Cell 573-578-4716
Proposal for Missouri State Enterprise Lean Implementation
By Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant October 5, 2013
This proposal is for the implementation of Enterprise Lean in the Missouri State Government following the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant. The General Reform Model implements Enterprise Lean throughout the Missouri State Government. The Enterprise Lean concept was developed by Toyota to improve the culture of the company’s work force increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Enterprise Lean empowers state employees to innovate and make continuous improvement to their jobs. The benefits to the state are from efficient operations but also the change in culture the way government employees view their jobs.
Main Goal
The main goal is to get the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible in state government while maintaining desired state services.
Enterprise Lean has been successfully implemented in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan, while the Lean approach for individual projects has been implemented in more ten states. Missouri was one of the original states using Lean. Ken Miller an independent consultant used Lean to reduce the turnaround time for State Income Tax refunds from months to just days.
Phase 1. Establish a State Enterprise Lean Commission
I recommend that a “State Enterprise Lean Commission” Be established in the State Auditor’s Office to have oversight of all State Lean implementations and activities. The State auditor will have Budget Analysts reporting to the State Enterprise Lean Commission Trained by The Principal Consultant to implement Enterprise Lean, develop Lean Data bases for the storage of Lean cost data as it is developed. The Budget Analysts will support Enterprise Lean until it has been implemented in its entirety throughout the state government. When the implementation has been completed the Budget Analysts will maintain the new budget databases. Prior to this proposal the State auditor was charged with only the auditing of funds now a new responsibility will be to monitor state activities for lost man hours. This is made possible through the development of the Lean data and the new bottoms-up Budget databases.
Phase 2. The Training and Organization of Lean Teams
The first act of the State Enterprise Lean Commission is to implement Enterprise Lean throughout the state government. Planning for Lean Training should done by the Commission meeting with the counsel of the Principal Consultant. I recommend that a Lean Training specialist be brought in from a local University to Kick off the implementation with training seminars. The planning issues related to Lean training, Facilitators, Budget Analysts will need to be resolved. Lean training should begin immediately by the state’s training staff. I would suggest that the normal training curriculum be suspended and an all out effort be made for Lean Training. Training should be made for staff members first followed by management and then Lean Facilitators. Lean facilitators organize and train each employee functional Lean Team work group which meets for one hour on a weekly basis. I suggest that the best Facilitators may be borrowed from HR staff but I have had success with secretaries and even copy machine operators. I do not bring any of my own staff to the job but chose to use and train current state employees to fill key implementation jobs. This is a benefit for the state to be left after the implementation with fully trained individuals.
There are two major Lean Team groups, high level and at-the-work-place Functional Lean Teams. High level Lean Teams use Management staff and are tasked to study inter-department and agency document flows. They may also be tasked is in the Consolidating Boards and Commissions Model. A third possible task is in the Consolidation of State Government Services Model. A key element of the High level Lean Teams is their role in management when converting from the bureaucratic organization to the Team Managed organization.
Implementation of the reforms can be done at minimum cost to the state using a Lean professional trainer from a local University in a train-the-trainer project and a Principal Consultant familiar with the General Reform Model. All other implementation staff are borrowed and trained from the states existing personnel using the state’s own resources. This has significant advantages with trained personnel remaining in key jobs with the state when compared with implementations involving a high number of expensive Consultants who leave when the implementation is completed taking critical knowledge with them.
Phase 3. Review of Lean Team Results and Collection of Lean Data
After a period of about three months most Functional Lean Teams, those that were organized and trained by Facilitators, should have their Value Stream Analyses completed. I have had success with doing the flow of the current method on long white butcher or brown wrapping paper taped around a conference room on the walls. The steps of the current method is completed first followed by the proposed improved method done directly under it. This is done to highlight the differences between the methods. I suggest that some Functional Lean Teams with significant savings present their improved method to management. After the presentation the rolled document is given to a Budget Analyst to determine the savings from the proposal. Budget Analysts are trained by the Principal Consultant and are part of the implementation staff.
Phase 4. Activities of the Principal Consultant
The Principal Consultant will play a key role in being sure that the Lean teams are properly trained and in the selection and approach of the high level Lean Teams. The Principal Consultant will insure that the activities of Budget Analysts employed by the state Auditor can determine the correct staffing level through Work Measurement and any expenses needed during the process. Some Budget Analysts may find the proper staffing for variable processes difficult to determine the Principal Consultant will make this determination when necessary. This data combined with the number of occurrences of the function over time, obtained from a daily log kept by each Lean Team, provides the basis for an accurate functional budget. The data from the rolled document will be kept on a spread sheet by the Budget Analysts and summarized in a database where all of the states functional data is stored. The activities of Budget Analysts are important and will be followed closely by the Principal Consultant.
The Principal Consultant will make a final review for the actual staffing required. Note that in most cases this is not a simple calculation due to variations in the times required to do even the same processes. Consolidation is required meaning most employees who currently do not have an activity that takes up their full time will have to be trained to also do a second activity while other employees will become redundant. The main skill required is in balancing the work load to give the remaining employees a full time job. This may be further complicated by activities which continually change and will require the training of a Work Planner to balance the work load assignments for those employees on a weekly basis.
Phase 5. Organization Reform
In the final step the Principal Consultant will begin the process of organizational reform by replacing the Bureaucratic organization with a Team Management organization with top management managing the state’s activities through Group Teams with each managing several Functional Teams. The Lean Teams at the Functional level will become self managed Functional teams with each of their elected leaders reporting directly to a Group Managed team. Group Managed Teams will assume their management role from the pre-organized high level Lean Teams. There is some flexibility in how this process actually occurs but it is necessary in order to eliminate the problems caused by the bureaucratic organization. The important advantage in changing from a Bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization is that the savings continues annually for years. But if the bureaucracy is allowed to stay in place after only a few years the level of staffing could grow to where it originally was. This is also the period of time for the reduction of redundant state government staff. Once it is known where staffing can be reduced layoffs or temporary reassignments should be completed within a month.
A reduction in State Staffing in not a goal of Enterprise Lean but rather a result of the implementation.
I have provided the following options to ease the trauma of layoffs.
1. Review State obligations to the public for new programs creating new jobs for personnel.
2. Explore the option of using Lean trained personnel in assisting City and County governments in the implementation of the General Reform Model at the local level.
3. Explore the option of the Four Day Workweek. A 36 hour workweek instantly increases productivity by 10%. The state of Utah has done this successfully.
4. Keep most redundant personnel in temporary jobs allowing attrition through continuous improvement.
Current knowledge about staffing has shown that nearly all bureaucracies are overstaffed by as much as 20%. But I have also found overstaffing up to 30% and higher. Savings for the state of Missouri from staff reductions (salaries and benefits) I estimate to be up to $200 million from census data. For this estimate I have assumed up to 20% overstaffing from regular employees and management. The actual savings to the state of Missouri may vary from this estimate.
Lawrence Rosier Consulting fees
A weekly payment covers all Consulting Fees, expenses including travel and overhead and is to be paid weekly. I can also make myself available for meetings with state government leaders and their staff at no cost to the state.
The State of Missouri may shorten or lengthen the number of weeks that the consultant is required to be on the job site as the State Enterprise Lean Commission finds necessary. The actual length of the implementation of reforms largely depends upon the availability of implementation personnel. Consultant Fees may not be altered from those finally agreed upon.
The following Client signatures of the representatives for the State of Missouri represents a general agreement that the State will follow the proposal’s outline of Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model as presented. The proposal may also be modified by mutual agreement. With the following signatures the Client also agrees to the weekly fee required by Lawrence Rosier and Associates.
_____________________ ___________________
Signatures of Mo. State Representatives
______________________
Signature of Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
Lawrence Rosier & Associates 12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla Missouri 65401 573 364 8789
Cell 573 578 4716
Email: lawrence2007@embarqmail.com
Lawrence Rosier & Associates
Management Consultants Government Reform
12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla, Missouri 65401
Phone 573-364-8789 Cell 573-578-4716
Proposal for Missouri State Enterprise Lean Implementation
By Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant October 5, 2013
This proposal is for the implementation of Enterprise Lean in the Missouri State Government following the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant. The General Reform Model implements Enterprise Lean throughout the Missouri State Government. The Enterprise Lean concept was developed by Toyota to improve the culture of the company’s work force increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Enterprise Lean empowers state employees to innovate and make continuous improvement to their jobs. The benefits to the state are from efficient operations but also the change in culture the way government employees view their jobs.
Main Goal
The main goal is to get the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible in state government while maintaining desired state services.
Enterprise Lean has been successfully implemented in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan, while the Lean approach for individual projects has been implemented in more ten states. Missouri was one of the original states using Lean. Ken Miller an independent consultant used Lean to reduce the turnaround time for State Income Tax refunds from months to just days.
Phase 1. Establish a State Enterprise Lean Commission
I recommend that a “State Enterprise Lean Commission” Be established in the State Auditor’s Office to have oversight of all State Lean implementations and activities. The State auditor will have Budget Analysts reporting to the State Enterprise Lean Commission Trained by The Principal Consultant to implement Enterprise Lean, develop Lean Data bases for the storage of Lean cost data as it is developed. The Budget Analysts will support Enterprise Lean until it has been implemented in its entirety throughout the state government. When the implementation has been completed the Budget Analysts will maintain the new budget databases. Prior to this proposal the State auditor was charged with only the auditing of funds now a new responsibility will be to monitor state activities for lost man hours. This is made possible through the development of the Lean data and the new bottoms-up Budget databases.
Phase 2. The Training and Organization of Lean Teams
The first act of the State Enterprise Lean Commission is to implement Enterprise Lean throughout the state government. Planning for Lean Training should done by the Commission meeting with the counsel of the Principal Consultant. I recommend that a Lean Training specialist be brought in from a local University to Kick off the implementation with training seminars. The planning issues related to Lean training, Facilitators, Budget Analysts will need to be resolved. Lean training should begin immediately by the state’s training staff. I would suggest that the normal training curriculum be suspended and an all out effort be made for Lean Training. Training should be made for staff members first followed by management and then Lean Facilitators. Lean facilitators organize and train each employee functional Lean Team work group which meets for one hour on a weekly basis. I suggest that the best Facilitators may be borrowed from HR staff but I have had success with secretaries and even copy machine operators. I do not bring any of my own staff to the job but chose to use and train current state employees to fill key implementation jobs. This is a benefit for the state to be left after the implementation with fully trained individuals.
There are two major Lean Team groups, high level and at-the-work-place Functional Lean Teams. High level Lean Teams use Management staff and are tasked to study inter-department and agency document flows. They may also be tasked is in the Consolidating Boards and Commissions Model. A third possible task is in the Consolidation of State Government Services Model. A key element of the High level Lean Teams is their role in management when converting from the bureaucratic organization to the Team Managed organization.
Implementation of the reforms can be done at minimum cost to the state using a Lean professional trainer from a local University in a train-the-trainer project and a Principal Consultant familiar with the General Reform Model. All other implementation staff are borrowed and trained from the states existing personnel using the state’s own resources. This has significant advantages with trained personnel remaining in key jobs with the state when compared with implementations involving a high number of expensive Consultants who leave when the implementation is completed taking critical knowledge with them.
Phase 3. Review of Lean Team Results and Collection of Lean Data
After a period of about three months most Functional Lean Teams, those that were organized and trained by Facilitators, should have their Value Stream Analyses completed. I have had success with doing the flow of the current method on long white butcher or brown wrapping paper taped around a conference room on the walls. The steps of the current method is completed first followed by the proposed improved method done directly under it. This is done to highlight the differences between the methods. I suggest that some Functional Lean Teams with significant savings present their improved method to management. After the presentation the rolled document is given to a Budget Analyst to determine the savings from the proposal. Budget Analysts are trained by the Principal Consultant and are part of the implementation staff.
Phase 4. Activities of the Principal Consultant
The Principal Consultant will play a key role in being sure that the Lean teams are properly trained and in the selection and approach of the high level Lean Teams. The Principal Consultant will insure that the activities of Budget Analysts employed by the state Auditor can determine the correct staffing level through Work Measurement and any expenses needed during the process. Some Budget Analysts may find the proper staffing for variable processes difficult to determine the Principal Consultant will make this determination when necessary. This data combined with the number of occurrences of the function over time, obtained from a daily log kept by each Lean Team, provides the basis for an accurate functional budget. The data from the rolled document will be kept on a spread sheet by the Budget Analysts and summarized in a database where all of the states functional data is stored. The activities of Budget Analysts are important and will be followed closely by the Principal Consultant.
The Principal Consultant will make a final review for the actual staffing required. Note that in most cases this is not a simple calculation due to variations in the times required to do even the same processes. Consolidation is required meaning most employees who currently do not have an activity that takes up their full time will have to be trained to also do a second activity while other employees will become redundant. The main skill required is in balancing the work load to give the remaining employees a full time job. This may be further complicated by activities which continually change and will require the training of a Work Planner to balance the work load assignments for those employees on a weekly basis.
Phase 5. Organization Reform
In the final step the Principal Consultant will begin the process of organizational reform by replacing the Bureaucratic organization with a Team Management organization with top management managing the state’s activities through Group Teams with each managing several Functional Teams. The Lean Teams at the Functional level will become self managed Functional teams with each of their elected leaders reporting directly to a Group Managed team. Group Managed Teams will assume their management role from the pre-organized high level Lean Teams. There is some flexibility in how this process actually occurs but it is necessary in order to eliminate the problems caused by the bureaucratic organization. The important advantage in changing from a Bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization is that the savings continues annually for years. But if the bureaucracy is allowed to stay in place after only a few years the level of staffing could grow to where it originally was. This is also the period of time for the reduction of redundant state government staff. Once it is known where staffing can be reduced layoffs or temporary reassignments should be completed within a month.
A reduction in State Staffing in not a goal of Enterprise Lean but rather a result of the implementation.
I have provided the following options to ease the trauma of layoffs.
1. Review State obligations to the public for new programs creating new jobs for personnel.
2. Explore the option of using Lean trained personnel in assisting City and County governments in the implementation of the General Reform Model at the local level.
3. Explore the option of the Four Day Workweek. A 36 hour workweek instantly increases productivity by 10%. The state of Utah has done this successfully.
4. Keep most redundant personnel in temporary jobs allowing attrition through continuous improvement.
Current knowledge about staffing has shown that nearly all bureaucracies are overstaffed by as much as 20%. But I have also found overstaffing up to 30% and higher. Savings for the state of Missouri from staff reductions (salaries and benefits) I estimate to be up to $200 million from census data. For this estimate I have assumed up to 20% overstaffing from regular employees and management. The actual savings to the state of Missouri may vary from this estimate.
Lawrence Rosier Consulting fees
A weekly payment covers all Consulting Fees, expenses including travel and overhead and is to be paid weekly. I can also make myself available for meetings with state government leaders and their staff at no cost to the state.
The State of Missouri may shorten or lengthen the number of weeks that the consultant is required to be on the job site as the State Enterprise Lean Commission finds necessary. The actual length of the implementation of reforms largely depends upon the availability of implementation personnel. Consultant Fees may not be altered from those finally agreed upon.
The following Client signatures of the representatives for the State of Missouri represents a general agreement that the State will follow the proposal’s outline of Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model as presented. The proposal may also be modified by mutual agreement. With the following signatures the Client also agrees to the weekly fee required by Lawrence Rosier and Associates.
_____________________ ___________________
Signatures of Mo. State Representatives
______________________
Signature of Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
Lawrence Rosier & Associates 12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla Missouri 65401 573 364 8789
Cell 573 578 4716
Email: lawrence2007@embarqmail.com
Article 23. Proposal to GAO for Pilot implementation of General Reform Model
Letter of Transmittal: October 2, 2013
To: US Government Accountability Office GAO
From: Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
Subject: Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and the training of GAO Analysts to support a Pilot implementation of the General Reform Model in a selected Federal Government Agency.
This proposal is for Guidance of GAO leaders and the training of GAO Analysts supporting the implementation of the General Reform Model based on Enterprise Lean with Lean Teams to get the highest efficiency with the most effectiveness within a Federal Agency by bringing reform to the entire Agency.
This proposal meets all of the GAO criteria: We advise Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable and responsive.
The method builds upon the implementation of Toyota’s Enterprise Lean with both high level agency Management Lean Teams studying Agency systems and document flows and work place Functional Lean Teams studying all of the Agencies functions involving all its employees. The Lean Training of employees is done by Agency training staff after a train-the-trainer program provided by a certified Lean Trainer. The primary purpose of the Lean Teams is to find the best way to perform the Agency’s systems and functions getting the highest efficiency possible while improving the Agencies effectiveness. An added benefit of Lean training is to empower employees for innovation and continuous improvement of their job functions.
Currently the Government uses Lean Six Sigma with specially trained internal consultants with rankings of Black belts. While I support the use of Lean Six Sigma this approach does not reform an entire Agency making it more efficient and effective. This is accomplished in this proposal by implementing the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier.
Please Review the following Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and the Training GAO Analysts in the implementation of my General Reform Model. This document is intended to be used to promote understanding and to start discussion on consulting activities and may be altered to fit required situations. The Federal Government may modify the attached Proposal to fit its specific needs.
Regards Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
PROPOSAL to: US Government Accountability Office October 2, 2013
By Lawrence Rosier & Associates
Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and GAO Analyst Training to support a Pilot implementation of the General Reform Model in a selected Federal Government Agency.
By Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
This proposal supports the implementation of the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier Principal Consultant to be implemented by the proposed “GAO Enterprise Lean Commission” in a selected US Government Agency. The Method implements Enterprise Lean with both Management Lean Teams and Functional Lean Teams in a selected Agency.
The Lean concept was developed by Toyota to involve employees in increasing the efficiency and the continuous improvement of their jobs. The benefits to the Government are from efficient and effective operations but also the change in the way government employees view their jobs empowering them to innovate and make continuous improvements to their jobs. The General Reform Model uses the data developed by the Enterprise Lean Teams for Work Measurement and from that staffing and budgeting is determined.
Goals
The main goal is to maintain the services of the Agency while getting the highest efficiency possible and improve the effectiveness of the Agency by empowering its employees through Enterprise Lean training to innovate and make continuous improvement to the systems in their jobs. This is followed by reforms in staffing, budgeting and the Agency’s bureaucratic organization.
The Lean Team data is used by GAO Analysts for right-sizing and the development of a bottoms-up budget. The result is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency and will result in a reduction of Agency staffing. A major benefit is the transparency to the Legislative Oversight Committee of the Agency providing transparency of actual costs for each Agency function and the bottoms-up budget. The “General Reform Model” is a approach designed by Lawrence Rosier to accomplish these Goals.
Proposal Details
I suggest an early meeting to allow GAO leaders and staff members to become fully familiar with the logic of the method I am proposing using my General Reform Model with the following Phases.
Phase 1. Formation of a GAO Enterprise Lean Commission
The first step is the formation of a GAO Enterprise Lean Commission with broad powers to lead and implement reforms. I suggest that the Commission be co-chaired by a top level representative of the selected Agency and a representative of the GAO. This is necessary for legitimacy and to make sure that data developed through all Lean VSM data is accumulated in GAO bottoms-up databases. This is followed by the selection of the Agency where the General Reform Model is to be implemented.
I suggest that the day to day activities of the implementation be co-chaired by the Principal Consultant and an Agency representative. The Agency’s representative will be tasked with providing those employees who will participate in the implementation and their expenses such as equipment offices and meeting rooms.
The Principal Consultant will form and lead an Implementation Team with GAO Analysts. The required number is entirely dependent on those who can be made available and the size of the Agency. I do not bring any of my own staff to the job but chose to train current employees, GAO Analysts and Lean Facilitators to fill key jobs during the implementation. The advantage is that the knowledge they acquire in managing the new methods will stay within the GAO and the Agency and will be used for other continuing implementations of Lean.
Phase 2. Implementation of Enterprise Lean in a Selected Agency
The first act of the newly formed GAO Enterprise Lean Commission and the Principal Consultant is in planning for the implementation of Lean Teams throughout the Agency. The purpose is to resolve issues related to Lean training, Facilitators, GAO Analysts and specifically what the Lean Teams must do to meet the requirements for determining staffing and budgets. I suggest that a Certified Enterprise Lean Trainer be brought in to train the Agency’s training staff. Allowing employee Lean training to begin immediately by the Agency’s training staff. I also suggest that the Agency’s normal training curriculum be suspended and an all out effort be made for Enterprise Lean Training of all Agency personnel.
The training of staff members is done first followed by GAO and Agency management and then Lean Facilitators. Lean Facilitators organize and train each employee Lean Team functional work group which usually meets for one hour on a weekly basis. There are three major Lean Team endeavors, a high-level Steering Lean Team, a mid-level Lean team made up of mid-level managers to make document flows efficient and at-the-work-place Functional Lean Teams those who do the basic work of the Agency. The Steering Lean Team will report to the Principal Consultant and will provide assistance in the management of the implementation.
The Steering Team also has an alternate task when required to consolidate the Agency’s internal Services as described in Lawrence Rosier’s Consolidation Model. Mid level Lean Teams are tasked to study inter-department and agency document flows.
After a period of about three to six months most Functional Lean Teams, those that were organized and trained by Facilitators, should have their Value Stream Analyses completed. I have had success with doing the flow of the current method on long butcher or brown wrapping paper taped around a conference room on the walls. The proposed improved method is done directly under the current method to highlight the differences between the methods. I suggest that those Lean Teams having considerable savings present the improved method to Agency management. After the presentation the Lean study data is given to a GAO Analyst to determine the savings from the proposal.
Phase 3. Training of GAO Analysts
The Principal Consultant will play a key role in being sure that the Lean teams are properly trained and in the selection and approach of the high-level Lean teams. The Principal consultant will insure that the GAO Analysts can determine the correct staffing level through Work Measurement and determine any expenses needed during the process. Some Analysts may find the proper staffing for variable processes difficult to determine. If so the Analyst will defer to the Principal Consultant to make this determination. This data combined with the number of occurrences of the Function over time, obtained from a daily log kept by each Lean Team, provides the basis for an accurate bottoms-up budget. The data from the Lean study will be Transferred to a spread sheet by the GAO Analysts and summarized in a database where all of the Agency’s Functional Data is stored. The activities and training of the GAO Analysts is important and will be followed closely by the Principal Consultant.
Phase 4. Principal Consultant and GAO Analyst Special Activities
The Principal Consultant will make a final review of the data to determine the actual staffing required. Note that in most cases this is not a simple calculation due to variations in the times required to do some processes. Consolidation of Agency employees is required meaning most employees who currently do not have a full time job will have to be trained to also do a second job while other employees will become redundant.
Phase 5. Replacing the Bureaucracy with a Team Management
The Principal Consultant and the Implementation Team can now begin the process of organizational reform by replacing the Bureaucratic organization with a Team Management organization. The GAO Enterprise Lean Commission will assist in the selection of key managers largely from the Management Lean Teams. The Agency’s Top Management will manage the Agencies activities through Group Teams with each managing several Functional Teams. The Lean Teams at the Functional level will become self managed Functional teams with each of their elected leaders reporting directly to a Group Managed team. Group Managed Teams can assume their management role from the pre-organized high level Management Lean Teams. There is some flexibility in how this process actually occurs but it is necessary in order to eliminate the problems caused by the bureaucratic organization. This is also the period of time for right-sizing the entire Agency once it is known where staffing can be reduced. Layoffs should be completed within three months.
.
Phase 6. Workload Planning and Scheduling
Efficiency is also improved with the application of Workload Planning and Scheduling. The process begins by first grouping functions by skill level and expertise. This is followed by developing a weekly Work Load Plan. As actual data is developed the plan is revised for continuous improvement. A Special skill is required in balancing the work load to give the remaining employees a full time job. This may be further complicated by jobs which continually change which will require the training of a Work Planner to balance the work load assignments for each employee on a weekly basis using a scheduling tool.
Results and Agreements
Current knowledge about Bureaucratic staffing has shown that nearly all bureaucracies are overstaffed by as much as 20% or more. Savings to the Federal Government for this implementation is largely from the salaries and benefits of redundant employees. Long term benefits continue from employee empowerment to innovate and make continuous improvement to their jobs. Other benefits are from the simplification of government processes. The Return On Investment is expected to be $100 for every $1 invested. Three months after the implementation of the General Reform Model projections for future savings can be made.
The Federal Government Agrees to Pay Lawrence Rosier & Associates a Fee per week for services rendered. This agreement can be canceled by either party with a one week notice. All consulting expenses such as travel, lodging, rental car, per diem are the sole responsibility of Lawrence Rosier & Associates.
The following Client signatures of the representatives for the GAO represents a general agreement that the GAO will follow the proposal’s outline of Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model as presented. The proposal may also be modified by mutual agreement. With the Client also agrees to the weekly fee required by Lawrence Rosier and Associates.
Lawrence Rosier & Associates 12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla, Missouri 65401
573 364 8789, cell 573 578 4716
Email: Lawrencerosier4@gmail.com
To: US Government Accountability Office GAO
From: Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
Subject: Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and the training of GAO Analysts to support a Pilot implementation of the General Reform Model in a selected Federal Government Agency.
This proposal is for Guidance of GAO leaders and the training of GAO Analysts supporting the implementation of the General Reform Model based on Enterprise Lean with Lean Teams to get the highest efficiency with the most effectiveness within a Federal Agency by bringing reform to the entire Agency.
This proposal meets all of the GAO criteria: We advise Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable and responsive.
The method builds upon the implementation of Toyota’s Enterprise Lean with both high level agency Management Lean Teams studying Agency systems and document flows and work place Functional Lean Teams studying all of the Agencies functions involving all its employees. The Lean Training of employees is done by Agency training staff after a train-the-trainer program provided by a certified Lean Trainer. The primary purpose of the Lean Teams is to find the best way to perform the Agency’s systems and functions getting the highest efficiency possible while improving the Agencies effectiveness. An added benefit of Lean training is to empower employees for innovation and continuous improvement of their job functions.
Currently the Government uses Lean Six Sigma with specially trained internal consultants with rankings of Black belts. While I support the use of Lean Six Sigma this approach does not reform an entire Agency making it more efficient and effective. This is accomplished in this proposal by implementing the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier.
Please Review the following Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and the Training GAO Analysts in the implementation of my General Reform Model. This document is intended to be used to promote understanding and to start discussion on consulting activities and may be altered to fit required situations. The Federal Government may modify the attached Proposal to fit its specific needs.
Regards Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
PROPOSAL to: US Government Accountability Office October 2, 2013
By Lawrence Rosier & Associates
Proposal for Guidance of GAO leaders and GAO Analyst Training to support a Pilot implementation of the General Reform Model in a selected Federal Government Agency.
By Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
This proposal supports the implementation of the General Reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier Principal Consultant to be implemented by the proposed “GAO Enterprise Lean Commission” in a selected US Government Agency. The Method implements Enterprise Lean with both Management Lean Teams and Functional Lean Teams in a selected Agency.
The Lean concept was developed by Toyota to involve employees in increasing the efficiency and the continuous improvement of their jobs. The benefits to the Government are from efficient and effective operations but also the change in the way government employees view their jobs empowering them to innovate and make continuous improvements to their jobs. The General Reform Model uses the data developed by the Enterprise Lean Teams for Work Measurement and from that staffing and budgeting is determined.
Goals
The main goal is to maintain the services of the Agency while getting the highest efficiency possible and improve the effectiveness of the Agency by empowering its employees through Enterprise Lean training to innovate and make continuous improvement to the systems in their jobs. This is followed by reforms in staffing, budgeting and the Agency’s bureaucratic organization.
The Lean Team data is used by GAO Analysts for right-sizing and the development of a bottoms-up budget. The result is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency and will result in a reduction of Agency staffing. A major benefit is the transparency to the Legislative Oversight Committee of the Agency providing transparency of actual costs for each Agency function and the bottoms-up budget. The “General Reform Model” is a approach designed by Lawrence Rosier to accomplish these Goals.
Proposal Details
I suggest an early meeting to allow GAO leaders and staff members to become fully familiar with the logic of the method I am proposing using my General Reform Model with the following Phases.
Phase 1. Formation of a GAO Enterprise Lean Commission
The first step is the formation of a GAO Enterprise Lean Commission with broad powers to lead and implement reforms. I suggest that the Commission be co-chaired by a top level representative of the selected Agency and a representative of the GAO. This is necessary for legitimacy and to make sure that data developed through all Lean VSM data is accumulated in GAO bottoms-up databases. This is followed by the selection of the Agency where the General Reform Model is to be implemented.
I suggest that the day to day activities of the implementation be co-chaired by the Principal Consultant and an Agency representative. The Agency’s representative will be tasked with providing those employees who will participate in the implementation and their expenses such as equipment offices and meeting rooms.
The Principal Consultant will form and lead an Implementation Team with GAO Analysts. The required number is entirely dependent on those who can be made available and the size of the Agency. I do not bring any of my own staff to the job but chose to train current employees, GAO Analysts and Lean Facilitators to fill key jobs during the implementation. The advantage is that the knowledge they acquire in managing the new methods will stay within the GAO and the Agency and will be used for other continuing implementations of Lean.
Phase 2. Implementation of Enterprise Lean in a Selected Agency
The first act of the newly formed GAO Enterprise Lean Commission and the Principal Consultant is in planning for the implementation of Lean Teams throughout the Agency. The purpose is to resolve issues related to Lean training, Facilitators, GAO Analysts and specifically what the Lean Teams must do to meet the requirements for determining staffing and budgets. I suggest that a Certified Enterprise Lean Trainer be brought in to train the Agency’s training staff. Allowing employee Lean training to begin immediately by the Agency’s training staff. I also suggest that the Agency’s normal training curriculum be suspended and an all out effort be made for Enterprise Lean Training of all Agency personnel.
The training of staff members is done first followed by GAO and Agency management and then Lean Facilitators. Lean Facilitators organize and train each employee Lean Team functional work group which usually meets for one hour on a weekly basis. There are three major Lean Team endeavors, a high-level Steering Lean Team, a mid-level Lean team made up of mid-level managers to make document flows efficient and at-the-work-place Functional Lean Teams those who do the basic work of the Agency. The Steering Lean Team will report to the Principal Consultant and will provide assistance in the management of the implementation.
The Steering Team also has an alternate task when required to consolidate the Agency’s internal Services as described in Lawrence Rosier’s Consolidation Model. Mid level Lean Teams are tasked to study inter-department and agency document flows.
After a period of about three to six months most Functional Lean Teams, those that were organized and trained by Facilitators, should have their Value Stream Analyses completed. I have had success with doing the flow of the current method on long butcher or brown wrapping paper taped around a conference room on the walls. The proposed improved method is done directly under the current method to highlight the differences between the methods. I suggest that those Lean Teams having considerable savings present the improved method to Agency management. After the presentation the Lean study data is given to a GAO Analyst to determine the savings from the proposal.
Phase 3. Training of GAO Analysts
The Principal Consultant will play a key role in being sure that the Lean teams are properly trained and in the selection and approach of the high-level Lean teams. The Principal consultant will insure that the GAO Analysts can determine the correct staffing level through Work Measurement and determine any expenses needed during the process. Some Analysts may find the proper staffing for variable processes difficult to determine. If so the Analyst will defer to the Principal Consultant to make this determination. This data combined with the number of occurrences of the Function over time, obtained from a daily log kept by each Lean Team, provides the basis for an accurate bottoms-up budget. The data from the Lean study will be Transferred to a spread sheet by the GAO Analysts and summarized in a database where all of the Agency’s Functional Data is stored. The activities and training of the GAO Analysts is important and will be followed closely by the Principal Consultant.
Phase 4. Principal Consultant and GAO Analyst Special Activities
The Principal Consultant will make a final review of the data to determine the actual staffing required. Note that in most cases this is not a simple calculation due to variations in the times required to do some processes. Consolidation of Agency employees is required meaning most employees who currently do not have a full time job will have to be trained to also do a second job while other employees will become redundant.
Phase 5. Replacing the Bureaucracy with a Team Management
The Principal Consultant and the Implementation Team can now begin the process of organizational reform by replacing the Bureaucratic organization with a Team Management organization. The GAO Enterprise Lean Commission will assist in the selection of key managers largely from the Management Lean Teams. The Agency’s Top Management will manage the Agencies activities through Group Teams with each managing several Functional Teams. The Lean Teams at the Functional level will become self managed Functional teams with each of their elected leaders reporting directly to a Group Managed team. Group Managed Teams can assume their management role from the pre-organized high level Management Lean Teams. There is some flexibility in how this process actually occurs but it is necessary in order to eliminate the problems caused by the bureaucratic organization. This is also the period of time for right-sizing the entire Agency once it is known where staffing can be reduced. Layoffs should be completed within three months.
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Phase 6. Workload Planning and Scheduling
Efficiency is also improved with the application of Workload Planning and Scheduling. The process begins by first grouping functions by skill level and expertise. This is followed by developing a weekly Work Load Plan. As actual data is developed the plan is revised for continuous improvement. A Special skill is required in balancing the work load to give the remaining employees a full time job. This may be further complicated by jobs which continually change which will require the training of a Work Planner to balance the work load assignments for each employee on a weekly basis using a scheduling tool.
Results and Agreements
Current knowledge about Bureaucratic staffing has shown that nearly all bureaucracies are overstaffed by as much as 20% or more. Savings to the Federal Government for this implementation is largely from the salaries and benefits of redundant employees. Long term benefits continue from employee empowerment to innovate and make continuous improvement to their jobs. Other benefits are from the simplification of government processes. The Return On Investment is expected to be $100 for every $1 invested. Three months after the implementation of the General Reform Model projections for future savings can be made.
The Federal Government Agrees to Pay Lawrence Rosier & Associates a Fee per week for services rendered. This agreement can be canceled by either party with a one week notice. All consulting expenses such as travel, lodging, rental car, per diem are the sole responsibility of Lawrence Rosier & Associates.
The following Client signatures of the representatives for the GAO represents a general agreement that the GAO will follow the proposal’s outline of Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model as presented. The proposal may also be modified by mutual agreement. With the Client also agrees to the weekly fee required by Lawrence Rosier and Associates.
Lawrence Rosier & Associates 12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla, Missouri 65401
573 364 8789, cell 573 578 4716
Email: Lawrencerosier4@gmail.com
Article 22. Why Government Screws-up Almost Everything it Touches
Government is focused on getting the funding to do something, seldom on where to spend the funding to get the most bang for its bucks. One key area which stands out is in the State and Federal governments continuing failures in IT implementations. For example the recent failure of the Health Care website can best be blamed on bungling bureaucrats. With the inability to recognize their short comings they continue to make bad choices hiring the wrong people using the wrong hardware and software approach wasting $billions.
The problem in past years and to some extent today is that there are few government leaders who have the knowledge to make the proper decisions related to IT implementations. The result is that they most always relay on their own IT personnel to make the decisions on future implementations. These are the vary people one should not ask because these are the people who have spent years working on their obsolete hardware. 95% of all government IT programs are obsolete but even worse government continues to build or add to the present obsolete systems using the same obsolete software approach.
Most government systems use an obsolete IBM Base Systems Application from which all other application programs must be compatible. These government systems have never been up graded and are more than 50 years old. Most of these systems were coded before the present Systems Analysts were born. This is the same function as Microsoft’s Windows 7 where all application programs must be compatible with it but it gets periodically up graded to Windows 8 etc.. With cell phones becoming obsolete within a year, one can only begin to see the inefficiency of these obsolete systems.
Washington State is one of the few states who has come to grips with this IT problem. A few years ago while planning for the new IT facility at Olympia Washington. The then IT State Manager was planning on reinstalling the current obsolete application programs into the new facility. Fortunately a computer knowledgeable Congressman got wind of the scheme and persuaded the Governor to implement modern Relational Databases into the new facility using the SQL language. Unfortunately it was too late for failed systems installed in: Indiana, Virginia, Texas and others. The Indiana and Texas failures were catastrophic yet they were able to spend enough money to make the systems work. But the biggest failure was in Virginia where nearly a $billion was spent just for the develop a statewide email system which they could have had for next to nothing using Googles Gmail.
The problem in past years and to some extent today is that there are few government leaders who have the knowledge to make the proper decisions related to IT implementations. The result is that they most always relay on their own IT personnel to make the decisions on future implementations. These are the vary people one should not ask because these are the people who have spent years working on their obsolete hardware. 95% of all government IT programs are obsolete but even worse government continues to build or add to the present obsolete systems using the same obsolete software approach.
Most government systems use an obsolete IBM Base Systems Application from which all other application programs must be compatible. These government systems have never been up graded and are more than 50 years old. Most of these systems were coded before the present Systems Analysts were born. This is the same function as Microsoft’s Windows 7 where all application programs must be compatible with it but it gets periodically up graded to Windows 8 etc.. With cell phones becoming obsolete within a year, one can only begin to see the inefficiency of these obsolete systems.
Washington State is one of the few states who has come to grips with this IT problem. A few years ago while planning for the new IT facility at Olympia Washington. The then IT State Manager was planning on reinstalling the current obsolete application programs into the new facility. Fortunately a computer knowledgeable Congressman got wind of the scheme and persuaded the Governor to implement modern Relational Databases into the new facility using the SQL language. Unfortunately it was too late for failed systems installed in: Indiana, Virginia, Texas and others. The Indiana and Texas failures were catastrophic yet they were able to spend enough money to make the systems work. But the biggest failure was in Virginia where nearly a $billion was spent just for the develop a statewide email system which they could have had for next to nothing using Googles Gmail.
Article 21. How to reduce Staffing Using Enterprise Lean
When government leaders are focused on cost reduction and they request suggestions from employees on how costs can be reduced. They will receive many valid ideas but staff reduction is not one of them. Government seams to care little about making sure all employees have a full time job and government employees are seldom fired for any reason even fraud. With this background of mismanagement of staffing this is a good place to start reducing government costs by making government efficient.
One of the biggest excuses for government not managing its staffing is the wide spread false belief that government operations is somehow different from private business. Witness the statement often made by government managers that “ We don’t make widgets”. The fact is that government provides services to the public but so do thousands of private businesses yet most of them are well managed. The blame for not properly managing employee staffing may be shared by our law makers who have never required that government operate efficiently. Another problem is that government uses what I call a Top-down budget for funding government agencies. This means that no one knows what the correct funding of an Agency should be. Each budgeted period merely adds funds to the present budget with the final increase in the budget being negotiated.
The ability to cost out the functions of an agency has always been thought to be not worth the cost of doing. Yet this is what most private businesses do they know what the functions of the business cost and they use this knowledge to manage the staffing of the business. The need to determine the cost of all functions in government and in business has become affordable using Enterprise Lean. Before Enterprise Lean the only way to find out the actual functional cost was to “time study” the function an admittedly costly operation not to mention the resentment of employees. With Enterprise Lean the entire organization’s functions are studied using trained employees in Lean Teams who meet each week for one hour. Each Lean Team studies their function to determine the most efficient and effective way to do their jobs. The old method is compared with the new method and the savings is calculated. The cost of the function is collected in a spread sheet and totaled. The result is improved methods and a bottoms-up budget for all of the agency’s functions. Note that the Bottoms-up budget does not include the overhead and management budget.
Armed with the actual cost of labor and expenses for each function the entire agency can be right sized (insuring that each employee has a full time job). The work force can be managed using a Work Plan to balance the work load of the agency insuring that all required work gets done.
The difference between Enterprise Lean, Lean Six Sigma and other Lean projects
Enterprise Lean encompasses the entire organization fixing all the functions making them efficient and provides for the development of a bottoms-up budget. All other lean projects are done on a selected project by project basis which works best on high level systems between agencies done with specially trained Lean managers and consultants.
One of the biggest excuses for government not managing its staffing is the wide spread false belief that government operations is somehow different from private business. Witness the statement often made by government managers that “ We don’t make widgets”. The fact is that government provides services to the public but so do thousands of private businesses yet most of them are well managed. The blame for not properly managing employee staffing may be shared by our law makers who have never required that government operate efficiently. Another problem is that government uses what I call a Top-down budget for funding government agencies. This means that no one knows what the correct funding of an Agency should be. Each budgeted period merely adds funds to the present budget with the final increase in the budget being negotiated.
The ability to cost out the functions of an agency has always been thought to be not worth the cost of doing. Yet this is what most private businesses do they know what the functions of the business cost and they use this knowledge to manage the staffing of the business. The need to determine the cost of all functions in government and in business has become affordable using Enterprise Lean. Before Enterprise Lean the only way to find out the actual functional cost was to “time study” the function an admittedly costly operation not to mention the resentment of employees. With Enterprise Lean the entire organization’s functions are studied using trained employees in Lean Teams who meet each week for one hour. Each Lean Team studies their function to determine the most efficient and effective way to do their jobs. The old method is compared with the new method and the savings is calculated. The cost of the function is collected in a spread sheet and totaled. The result is improved methods and a bottoms-up budget for all of the agency’s functions. Note that the Bottoms-up budget does not include the overhead and management budget.
Armed with the actual cost of labor and expenses for each function the entire agency can be right sized (insuring that each employee has a full time job). The work force can be managed using a Work Plan to balance the work load of the agency insuring that all required work gets done.
The difference between Enterprise Lean, Lean Six Sigma and other Lean projects
Enterprise Lean encompasses the entire organization fixing all the functions making them efficient and provides for the development of a bottoms-up budget. All other lean projects are done on a selected project by project basis which works best on high level systems between agencies done with specially trained Lean managers and consultants.
Article 20. Time for the GAO to Assume its Role in Reforming the Federal Government
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has the primary role of ferreting out waste in the Federal Government. Using accounting techniques the GAO has been doing an excellent job of identifying waste in the Federal Government but unfortunately little is being done about correcting the problems that spawns the waste. Traditionally the GAO watches the nation’s dollars and how they get wasted. Now congress needs to enact new powers for the GAO to Implement Major Reforms in the Federal Government and to assume responsibility for the oversight of the nations efficiency and effectiveness. This means not only identifying waste in terms of dollars but also in terms of human labor largely ignored until now.
Congress should enact legislation that strengthens the GAO’s powers for punishing perpetrators of waste from fraud by referring cases to the Attorney General and the Justus Department. Congress should also enact legislation that specifically Identifies the method of approach for reforming the government for getting the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible. I have outline my suggestions for doing this in my Article 300. Approach for the Total Reform of the US Government.
The Key Role of the Government Accounting Office
The GAO will Chair each Cabinet Departmental Reform Commission; this is necessary to provide the objectivity required for the implementation of the reforms. Department personnel will be members of the Reform Commission. Some Departmental officials may be on the commission in a rotating basis to focus on key areas of the implementation.
The GAO will supply Budget Analysis personnel for the implementation of the author’s General Reform Model. The GAO will be responsible for the storage of all data generated by low level Functional Lean Teams and collected by the Budget Analysts. The data stored will be the basis for bottoms-up budget with the actual cost of every government function including the actual staffing required.
The Executive Office of Management & Budget and other government officials in need of budget data will have access to the budget data for budgeting purposes but the GAO will be responsible for maintaining and updating the data.
Congressional Oversight of implementation of Reforms
Congress shall be updated on the progress of the Reform Implementations as required.
Suggested First Reform: Department of Defense Pilot Implementation
The GAO will Chair the DOD Reform Commission at the Joints Chiefs of Staff level. High level DOD personnel will be members of the Commission. I recommend that the first area of implementation be in the US Army because of their emphasis on Lean Six Sigma. Representatives of the US Army associated with the Lean Six Sigma should be members of the DOD Reform Commission. Rotating membership should be provided for US Army organizations as key implementations are made in their areas.
The objective is to eliminate waste, reduce expenses and keep key DOD functions operational by making high level systems efficient using Lean Six Sigma. Followed by the reform of all DOD agencies to get the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible by implementing Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model which identifies where cuts can be made while keeping critical operations alive and active.
Congress should enact legislation that strengthens the GAO’s powers for punishing perpetrators of waste from fraud by referring cases to the Attorney General and the Justus Department. Congress should also enact legislation that specifically Identifies the method of approach for reforming the government for getting the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible. I have outline my suggestions for doing this in my Article 300. Approach for the Total Reform of the US Government.
The Key Role of the Government Accounting Office
The GAO will Chair each Cabinet Departmental Reform Commission; this is necessary to provide the objectivity required for the implementation of the reforms. Department personnel will be members of the Reform Commission. Some Departmental officials may be on the commission in a rotating basis to focus on key areas of the implementation.
The GAO will supply Budget Analysis personnel for the implementation of the author’s General Reform Model. The GAO will be responsible for the storage of all data generated by low level Functional Lean Teams and collected by the Budget Analysts. The data stored will be the basis for bottoms-up budget with the actual cost of every government function including the actual staffing required.
The Executive Office of Management & Budget and other government officials in need of budget data will have access to the budget data for budgeting purposes but the GAO will be responsible for maintaining and updating the data.
Congressional Oversight of implementation of Reforms
Congress shall be updated on the progress of the Reform Implementations as required.
Suggested First Reform: Department of Defense Pilot Implementation
The GAO will Chair the DOD Reform Commission at the Joints Chiefs of Staff level. High level DOD personnel will be members of the Commission. I recommend that the first area of implementation be in the US Army because of their emphasis on Lean Six Sigma. Representatives of the US Army associated with the Lean Six Sigma should be members of the DOD Reform Commission. Rotating membership should be provided for US Army organizations as key implementations are made in their areas.
The objective is to eliminate waste, reduce expenses and keep key DOD functions operational by making high level systems efficient using Lean Six Sigma. Followed by the reform of all DOD agencies to get the highest efficiency and effectiveness possible by implementing Lawrence Rosier’s General Reform Model which identifies where cuts can be made while keeping critical operations alive and active.
Article 19. Lean Six Sigma Is in the Army Now, Improving Efficiency
Lean Six Sigma has been discovered by the US Military and widely implemented. But what was missed is the other half of the story “ENTERPRISE LEAN”. Enterprise Lean aka “Toyota’s TPS” should be implemented after Lean Six Sigma has fixed the high level systems that drive a military organization. Especially those organizations that interface with other organizations. Enterprise Lean compliments Lean Six Sigma by bringing reforms that make the entire organization more efficient using the employees in Lean Teams. Each Lean Team is empowered to meet once a week to study the Function it works on making it more efficient and effective with continuous improvement.
Taking Enterprise Lean one step further using my General Reform Model we can use the data developed by the Lean Teams to right-size the organization (making sure that each employee has a full time job), develop a bottoms-up budget (provides transparency of all the organizations functional labor and other costs) and converts the organizations office bureaucracy to a Team Managed organization. The expected savings comes from increased efficiency resulting in reduced staffing as much as 20%.
The following excellent article provides a good overview of how Lean Six Sigma was introduced into the Military. I can only hope that Military Leaders will recognize the complimentary value of Enterprise Lean.
Lean Six Sigma Is in the Army Now, Improving Efficiency
A sweeping rollout of Lean Six Sigma is helping the Army transform its business practices and free up resources – all to better support its soldiers. The Army deployment is the largest ever attempted, eventually encompassing 1.3 million people.
By Elaine Schmidt http://www.isixsigma.com/industries/government/lean-six-sigma-army-now-improving-efficiency/
In today’s U.S. Army, it’s not caissons that are rolling along. It’s Lean Six Sigma.
From the mess hall at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to the recruiting command at Fort Knox, Ky., to the Texas depot where beat-up Humvees are rebuilt to go back into combat, the sweeping rollout of Lean Six Sigma is helping the Army transform its business practices and free up resources – all to better equip and support the soldier.
The deployment is Army wide, making it the largest Lean Six Sigma deployment ever attempted, eventually encompassing 1.3 million employees across the globe.
With war being fought on more than one front, the stakes for process improvement have never been higher.
A Need for Change
Michael A. Kirby, deputy under secretary of the Army for Business Transformation, said there was a compelling need to do business differently. The Army is “a highly efficient, ultra-modern 21st century war-fighting machine,” he said, “but…our business practices are mired in mid-20th century practices.” Lean Six Sigma is a main focus in the Army’s transformation efforts.
(Supporters of ) Six Sigma in the US Army
Lt. Col. Marko J.E.Nikituk, Army program director of Lean Six Sigma; Michael A. Kirby, deputy under secretary of the Army for Business Transformation; and Ronald E. Rezek, special assistant to the acting secretary of the Army.
The goal of the Lean Six Sigma deployment, which includes civilians and contractors as well as active duty, Army Reserve and National Guard personnel, is to “make the business side of the Army as efficient as the war-fighting side is effective,” according to Ronald E. Rezek, special assistant to the acting secretary of the Army.
“On the war-fighting side, they make adjustments in the operations area each and every day,” Rezek said. “When they come back from a mission, the first thing they do is debrief, update and adjust. We don’t have that rapidity on the business side of the Army.”
On the contrary, the business or institutional side of the Army has long been notorious for bureaucracy.
Kirby pointed out that business practices in government are identical to those in the private sector. “All those warfighter-generating activities, not things done on the battlefield but all those things that get an army ready to go into the battlefield – purchasing, logistics, healthcare, human resources, etc. – those things are ripe for the application of modern business practices,” he said. “We can benefit by taking right off the shelf those things that work in the private sector and applying them to our business practices.”
A civilian who has held his post since it was created in 2006, Kirby is uniquely qualified for the job. Not only does he have an MBA from the Harvard Business School and worked for Northrop Grumman prior to this position, his background also includes military service. He was educated at West Point and the National War College and commanded a tank battalion in the first Gulf War, as well as serving a stint in the office of the Army chief of staff.
Broad Deployment Followed Successes
The Army-wide deployment of Lean Six Sigma began in late 2005, under Francis J. Harvey, then secretary of the Army, who was appointed in 2004. Lt. Col. Marko J.E. Nikituk, Army program director for Lean Six Sigma, office of the deputy under secretary of the Army for business transformation, said the deployment grew out of Harvey’s transitional team looking at where they could improve the organization during their watch.
Smaller Army deployments of Lean Six Sigma had already begun and those successes pointed the way. Lean Six Sigma was drafted into the Army in 2002 through the Army Materiel Command (AMC). The command’s critical support function is best explained by the description on AMC’s website: “If a soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, communicates with it, or eats it – AMC provides it.”
Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III, who is currently serving as military deputy/director, Army Acquisition Corps, office of the assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, was at that time the commanding general of the Tank-automotive and Armament Command (TACOM) which falls under AMC. Thompson knew, in his first months at TACOM, that a major change in day-to-day operations had to be made.
“Our demands, what we were being asked to do, were up significantly because this was immediately post-9/11,” he said. “The command had a lot of additional missions that were coming its way, but additional dollars and people to do those missions were not forthcoming. So we needed a way to get more productivity out of all of our business areas and out of our people.”
Thompson and his command began looking at what options were available and began benchmarking against various organizations and methodologies.
“We discovered some very good examples outside the government, and inside with a couple of Air Force depots,” Thompson said. “Warner Robins Air Logistics Center…was putting mostly Lean in place and getting good results. So we had an example that said, yes, this can work in a government organization. That helped reinforce the decision to try to do this in the Tank-automotive and Armament Command.”
Red River Army Depot near Texarkana, Texas, one of TACOM’s repair and maintenance facilities, was the first Army depot to implement Lean Six Sigma. It achieved dramatic results in continual stages of improvement and led the way for other depots. (See “Building It as If Their Lives Depend on It”).
The Order to Move Forward
The leap from deploying Lean Six Sigma in the manufacturing arena to deploying it throughout the entire Army was not as daunting a task as it might seem. “It followed the military model, which is centrally plan and de-centrally execute,” Nikituk said.
“We asked for all the commands and staff to identify the processes that were giving them problems in October 2005 and to identify the brightest and best people with the sensitivity for learning the tools,” he said.
Nikituk explained that the Army brought an outside group on board to provide training to Army personnel, with the goal of becoming self-sustaining by fiscal year 2008. The Army also decided on a software tracking tool that would not only track progress and projects, but also allow all commands in the Army to use the data from any command’s projects.
Training began in June 2006. In addition to Champion training through executive leadership workshops, the Army has trained 446 Black Belts and more than 1,200 Green Belts to date. Those figures do not include personnel who came to the Army with Six Sigma certification.
“We are striving to achieve in the thousands of Black Belts and Green Belts this year,” Nikituk said.
In an Aug. 3 ceremony, the Army celebrated the graduation of 15 Master Black Belts, who will now pursue certification.
Six Sigma Snapshot
Deployed: 2005
Number of Belts trained:
> Green Belts: 1,240
> Black Belts: 446
> Master Black Belts: 15
Number of projects: 1,069
completed, 1,681 active
Financial benefit/savings:
Nearly $2 billion
Similarities to the Private Sector
As in private industry, the Army is using Lean Six Sigma to create a culture of continuous process improvement. Lean provides speed and efficiency by eliminating waste and non-value-added activities; Six Sigma reduces variation and defects. One of the big weapons in the Army’s new arsenal is value stream analysis, which is helping identify where there are redundancies in effort and resources. By reducing the cycle time in a particular process, productivity is increased and costs are decreased. For the warfighter, this translates into dollars that can be used for other priority needs.
The Army’s Lean Six Sigma deployment is also similar to civilian deployments in regard to issues like resistance and buy-in. Although resistance in a command structure like the Army’s is less of a problem than in a private sector enterprise, it was still a consideration.
“The application of Lean Six Sigma in the Army was revolutionary,” Rezek said. “When you do something revolutionary, you have to start at the top.”
Rezek explained that during 2005 and early 2006 the Army’s generals and members of the Senior Executive Service (a corps of men and women charged with leading the continuing transformation of government) all went into classrooms for two days of executive awareness training to get acquainted with Lean Six Sigma and with their responsibilities in the deployment. These upper-level training classes were conducted in various places around the country and the globe.
“The resistance was far less than anticipated,” Rezek said. “There’s always some with the mindset that say I can wait this thing out – I’ve been through it before. But once you do projects and everyone sees tangible, provable, data-driven results, people want to be a part of the team.”
Kirby emphasizes that the Army is following a top-down, bottom-up approach, with the leaders soliciting the input of the people who perform a process in order to help make the process leaner and more efficient. Everyone is being asked to look at their own work space daily and think how to do business better.
Rewriting the Metrics
One of the differences between the Army’s deployment and a deployment in the private sector is in the metrics.
“We used industry best practices to lay out a plan,” Kirby said, “but what we are finding is that we are rewriting the metrics for somebody our size. We are still benchmarking this, but we are probably in the neighborhood of a 10-times greater return on a given Black Belt or Master Black Belt project than the industry-wide metric.”
The use of a web portal for sharing project data plays a key role in this level of success. If one command completes a successful project, another command performing the same function can make use of that information to achieve the same results without having to undertake the project itself.
According to Thompson, the pivotal Army metrics on any given project are cost avoidance/cost savings, cycle time improvement, and improvement in the quality of the product or service. “At least one of those has got to be significantly improved as a result of doing a project,” he said. “I maintain that all three can be improved – if you do this right, you can get all three.”
Proof Positive
Things already appear to be going in the right direction. Army leaders expect to reach a $2 billion savings mark this year.
Green Belt Dennis Dean Kirk, associate Army general counsel for strategic integration/business transformation, has worked on several Lean Six Sigma projects, one which saved the Army more than $400 million. That project was aimed at the Army’s Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif. The center was supposed to be providing foreign language instruction primarily to Army personnel – at an 80 percent to 20 percent ratio, with the 20 percent made up of personnel from other branches of the armed services, plus employees from the CIA and other agencies.
Kirk’s project revealed that far more personnel from outside the Army were taking classes. “People don’t understand that when you do something for another agency, it comes out of your own hide,” he said. “Money that is supposed to go for uniforms, bullets and tanks goes for training someone else.”
The project required a team of Department of Defense (DoD) people and the writing of a new rule for the defense review that is conducted every four years by the DoD. It put the language training facility back in balance, specifying that the non-Army agencies taking advantage of the language classes will “share and equate the burden” of cost.
“Lean Six Sigma empowered me to do what people would normally say is a bridge too far,” Kirk said.
What Other Armed Forces Are Doing with Continuous Process Improvement
The Army is not the only branch of the armed forces with a renewed focus on continuous process improvement:
Department of the Navy, comprising the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps: The Department of the Navy’s Lean Six Sigma efforts started about five years ago, but the full-blown deployment happened in 2006, after Donald Winter came on board as the secretary of the Navy. Like the Army’s Kirby, he also worked at Northrop Grumman Corp. and TRW Automotive and was familiar with Lean Six Sigma.
So far, the Department of the Navy has trained or is training 30 Master Black Belts, 1,001 Black Belts and 4,221 Green Belts. More than 7,900 Champions also have been trained. The Department of the Navy offers an online White Belt course, which more than 29,000 personnel have taken. Nicholas Kunesh, special assistant to the secretary of the Navy, estimates savings for 2006 and 2007 to be $450 million. The return on investment: 4-to-1.
U.S. Air Force: Launched this year, Air Force Smart Operations 21 (AFSO 21) is the Air Force’s organization-wide continuous improvement effort. Headed by Gen. T. Michael
Mosley, Air Force chief of staff; and Michael Wynne, secretary of the Air
Force. The effort uses primarily Lean Six Sigma and elements of Six Sigma, the theory of constraints and business process reengineering.
More than 400 Green Belts, 110 Black Belts and 13 Master Black Belts have been or are being trained. Another 50 Black Belts and 50 Master Black Belts are scheduled for training. While project-tracking software lists 65 projects completed and 128 in progress, “there are many more projects and initiatives that have been accomplished,” said Lt. Col. Jim Schaefer with Air Force media relations. He said the Air Force is building on several years of experience in its Air Logistics Centers, which received two Shingo Prizes last year.
Lt. Col. Schaefer did not provide savings figures, but he said the “Air Force has already committed to a 40,000-manpower reduction without impairing its operational capabilities due in part to efficiencies gained using AFSO 21 tools and principles.” The Air Force recently awarded a $99 million blanket purchase agreement for consulting to support the program.
Other Army Lean Six Sigma project improvements include:
1.Streamlining the recruiting process – The U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox used value stream analysis to analyze and improve the Army’s recruiting process to better meet recruiting goals. The previous process for recruits to enter the Army required 32 steps, 27 approvals and 47 handoffs of information or applicants. With the new process in place, only 11 steps, 14 approvals and 14 handoffs will be required.
2.Preventing food waste at West Point – Five young cadets at West Point focused a project on what are known as “voluntary meals” at the academy. “Cadets don’t have to go to supper on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” Rezek explained. Using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), the five Green Belt candidates determined how to forecast how many students will show up for a given voluntary meal, making food planning easier and more cost efficient.
3. Improving foreign military sales – The Army Security Assistance Command has used Lean Six Sigma to improve the processes involved in foreign military sales. Project results reduced lead times by 25 percent, raised the quality of the processes and cut administrative costs by $3.2 million.
Marketable Skills
As an all-volunteer force, today’s Army is acutely aware of the recruitment potential of providing its personnel with skills that will be marketable in civilian life.
“We are certainly using the ability to gain skills, Lean Six Sigma among them, as part of professional development enhancements, which the Army does very well,” Kirby said. The Army has even developed its own program for certifying Belts.
Although it is too early in the deployment to see a significant number of Army-trained Lean Six Sigma personnel taking their skills back to civilian life, Thompson could cite one example.
“An Army colonel I knew very well personally and professionally at Letterkenny Army Depot, Col. Bill Guinn, is very sought after in the consulting business today – not just in the military but with private companies,” he said. “Letterkenny was sort of a model we held up for a while on how to do this.” It was the first Army depot to win a Shingo Prize.
Looking to the Future
Along with the Army, the Air Force and Navy also are doing a full deployment to change the way their departments do business. (See “Other Armed Forces at a Glance.”)
In fact, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England recently issued a Department of Defense-wide memo stating that he wants to use Lean Six Sigma for the basis of continuous improvement across the DoD.
“If we are using Lean Six Sigma to solve complex problems, we need people on the same wavelength we’re on, speaking the same language throughout the enterprise,” Kirby said.
Thompson added, “Without [DoD] understanding of where we’re trying to go, it’ll be a little harder for us to make some of the changes we want to make.”
Thompson pointed out that Lean Six Sigma also is currently being used in some parts of the Internal Revenue Service and the CIA, adding that he thinks it is a positive thing that the methodology is taking root in other areas of government.
“Those who are in government service are beholden to the taxpayers,” Thompson said, “And this is a better deal for taxpayers.”
But foremost, the Army is banking on Lean Six Sigma to provide a better deal for the soldier.
Author: Elaine Schmidt
Taking Enterprise Lean one step further using my General Reform Model we can use the data developed by the Lean Teams to right-size the organization (making sure that each employee has a full time job), develop a bottoms-up budget (provides transparency of all the organizations functional labor and other costs) and converts the organizations office bureaucracy to a Team Managed organization. The expected savings comes from increased efficiency resulting in reduced staffing as much as 20%.
The following excellent article provides a good overview of how Lean Six Sigma was introduced into the Military. I can only hope that Military Leaders will recognize the complimentary value of Enterprise Lean.
Lean Six Sigma Is in the Army Now, Improving Efficiency
A sweeping rollout of Lean Six Sigma is helping the Army transform its business practices and free up resources – all to better support its soldiers. The Army deployment is the largest ever attempted, eventually encompassing 1.3 million people.
By Elaine Schmidt http://www.isixsigma.com/industries/government/lean-six-sigma-army-now-improving-efficiency/
In today’s U.S. Army, it’s not caissons that are rolling along. It’s Lean Six Sigma.
From the mess hall at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to the recruiting command at Fort Knox, Ky., to the Texas depot where beat-up Humvees are rebuilt to go back into combat, the sweeping rollout of Lean Six Sigma is helping the Army transform its business practices and free up resources – all to better equip and support the soldier.
The deployment is Army wide, making it the largest Lean Six Sigma deployment ever attempted, eventually encompassing 1.3 million employees across the globe.
With war being fought on more than one front, the stakes for process improvement have never been higher.
A Need for Change
Michael A. Kirby, deputy under secretary of the Army for Business Transformation, said there was a compelling need to do business differently. The Army is “a highly efficient, ultra-modern 21st century war-fighting machine,” he said, “but…our business practices are mired in mid-20th century practices.” Lean Six Sigma is a main focus in the Army’s transformation efforts.
(Supporters of ) Six Sigma in the US Army
Lt. Col. Marko J.E.Nikituk, Army program director of Lean Six Sigma; Michael A. Kirby, deputy under secretary of the Army for Business Transformation; and Ronald E. Rezek, special assistant to the acting secretary of the Army.
The goal of the Lean Six Sigma deployment, which includes civilians and contractors as well as active duty, Army Reserve and National Guard personnel, is to “make the business side of the Army as efficient as the war-fighting side is effective,” according to Ronald E. Rezek, special assistant to the acting secretary of the Army.
“On the war-fighting side, they make adjustments in the operations area each and every day,” Rezek said. “When they come back from a mission, the first thing they do is debrief, update and adjust. We don’t have that rapidity on the business side of the Army.”
On the contrary, the business or institutional side of the Army has long been notorious for bureaucracy.
Kirby pointed out that business practices in government are identical to those in the private sector. “All those warfighter-generating activities, not things done on the battlefield but all those things that get an army ready to go into the battlefield – purchasing, logistics, healthcare, human resources, etc. – those things are ripe for the application of modern business practices,” he said. “We can benefit by taking right off the shelf those things that work in the private sector and applying them to our business practices.”
A civilian who has held his post since it was created in 2006, Kirby is uniquely qualified for the job. Not only does he have an MBA from the Harvard Business School and worked for Northrop Grumman prior to this position, his background also includes military service. He was educated at West Point and the National War College and commanded a tank battalion in the first Gulf War, as well as serving a stint in the office of the Army chief of staff.
Broad Deployment Followed Successes
The Army-wide deployment of Lean Six Sigma began in late 2005, under Francis J. Harvey, then secretary of the Army, who was appointed in 2004. Lt. Col. Marko J.E. Nikituk, Army program director for Lean Six Sigma, office of the deputy under secretary of the Army for business transformation, said the deployment grew out of Harvey’s transitional team looking at where they could improve the organization during their watch.
Smaller Army deployments of Lean Six Sigma had already begun and those successes pointed the way. Lean Six Sigma was drafted into the Army in 2002 through the Army Materiel Command (AMC). The command’s critical support function is best explained by the description on AMC’s website: “If a soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, communicates with it, or eats it – AMC provides it.”
Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III, who is currently serving as military deputy/director, Army Acquisition Corps, office of the assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, was at that time the commanding general of the Tank-automotive and Armament Command (TACOM) which falls under AMC. Thompson knew, in his first months at TACOM, that a major change in day-to-day operations had to be made.
“Our demands, what we were being asked to do, were up significantly because this was immediately post-9/11,” he said. “The command had a lot of additional missions that were coming its way, but additional dollars and people to do those missions were not forthcoming. So we needed a way to get more productivity out of all of our business areas and out of our people.”
Thompson and his command began looking at what options were available and began benchmarking against various organizations and methodologies.
“We discovered some very good examples outside the government, and inside with a couple of Air Force depots,” Thompson said. “Warner Robins Air Logistics Center…was putting mostly Lean in place and getting good results. So we had an example that said, yes, this can work in a government organization. That helped reinforce the decision to try to do this in the Tank-automotive and Armament Command.”
Red River Army Depot near Texarkana, Texas, one of TACOM’s repair and maintenance facilities, was the first Army depot to implement Lean Six Sigma. It achieved dramatic results in continual stages of improvement and led the way for other depots. (See “Building It as If Their Lives Depend on It”).
The Order to Move Forward
The leap from deploying Lean Six Sigma in the manufacturing arena to deploying it throughout the entire Army was not as daunting a task as it might seem. “It followed the military model, which is centrally plan and de-centrally execute,” Nikituk said.
“We asked for all the commands and staff to identify the processes that were giving them problems in October 2005 and to identify the brightest and best people with the sensitivity for learning the tools,” he said.
Nikituk explained that the Army brought an outside group on board to provide training to Army personnel, with the goal of becoming self-sustaining by fiscal year 2008. The Army also decided on a software tracking tool that would not only track progress and projects, but also allow all commands in the Army to use the data from any command’s projects.
Training began in June 2006. In addition to Champion training through executive leadership workshops, the Army has trained 446 Black Belts and more than 1,200 Green Belts to date. Those figures do not include personnel who came to the Army with Six Sigma certification.
“We are striving to achieve in the thousands of Black Belts and Green Belts this year,” Nikituk said.
In an Aug. 3 ceremony, the Army celebrated the graduation of 15 Master Black Belts, who will now pursue certification.
Six Sigma Snapshot
Deployed: 2005
Number of Belts trained:
> Green Belts: 1,240
> Black Belts: 446
> Master Black Belts: 15
Number of projects: 1,069
completed, 1,681 active
Financial benefit/savings:
Nearly $2 billion
Similarities to the Private Sector
As in private industry, the Army is using Lean Six Sigma to create a culture of continuous process improvement. Lean provides speed and efficiency by eliminating waste and non-value-added activities; Six Sigma reduces variation and defects. One of the big weapons in the Army’s new arsenal is value stream analysis, which is helping identify where there are redundancies in effort and resources. By reducing the cycle time in a particular process, productivity is increased and costs are decreased. For the warfighter, this translates into dollars that can be used for other priority needs.
The Army’s Lean Six Sigma deployment is also similar to civilian deployments in regard to issues like resistance and buy-in. Although resistance in a command structure like the Army’s is less of a problem than in a private sector enterprise, it was still a consideration.
“The application of Lean Six Sigma in the Army was revolutionary,” Rezek said. “When you do something revolutionary, you have to start at the top.”
Rezek explained that during 2005 and early 2006 the Army’s generals and members of the Senior Executive Service (a corps of men and women charged with leading the continuing transformation of government) all went into classrooms for two days of executive awareness training to get acquainted with Lean Six Sigma and with their responsibilities in the deployment. These upper-level training classes were conducted in various places around the country and the globe.
“The resistance was far less than anticipated,” Rezek said. “There’s always some with the mindset that say I can wait this thing out – I’ve been through it before. But once you do projects and everyone sees tangible, provable, data-driven results, people want to be a part of the team.”
Kirby emphasizes that the Army is following a top-down, bottom-up approach, with the leaders soliciting the input of the people who perform a process in order to help make the process leaner and more efficient. Everyone is being asked to look at their own work space daily and think how to do business better.
Rewriting the Metrics
One of the differences between the Army’s deployment and a deployment in the private sector is in the metrics.
“We used industry best practices to lay out a plan,” Kirby said, “but what we are finding is that we are rewriting the metrics for somebody our size. We are still benchmarking this, but we are probably in the neighborhood of a 10-times greater return on a given Black Belt or Master Black Belt project than the industry-wide metric.”
The use of a web portal for sharing project data plays a key role in this level of success. If one command completes a successful project, another command performing the same function can make use of that information to achieve the same results without having to undertake the project itself.
According to Thompson, the pivotal Army metrics on any given project are cost avoidance/cost savings, cycle time improvement, and improvement in the quality of the product or service. “At least one of those has got to be significantly improved as a result of doing a project,” he said. “I maintain that all three can be improved – if you do this right, you can get all three.”
Proof Positive
Things already appear to be going in the right direction. Army leaders expect to reach a $2 billion savings mark this year.
Green Belt Dennis Dean Kirk, associate Army general counsel for strategic integration/business transformation, has worked on several Lean Six Sigma projects, one which saved the Army more than $400 million. That project was aimed at the Army’s Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif. The center was supposed to be providing foreign language instruction primarily to Army personnel – at an 80 percent to 20 percent ratio, with the 20 percent made up of personnel from other branches of the armed services, plus employees from the CIA and other agencies.
Kirk’s project revealed that far more personnel from outside the Army were taking classes. “People don’t understand that when you do something for another agency, it comes out of your own hide,” he said. “Money that is supposed to go for uniforms, bullets and tanks goes for training someone else.”
The project required a team of Department of Defense (DoD) people and the writing of a new rule for the defense review that is conducted every four years by the DoD. It put the language training facility back in balance, specifying that the non-Army agencies taking advantage of the language classes will “share and equate the burden” of cost.
“Lean Six Sigma empowered me to do what people would normally say is a bridge too far,” Kirk said.
What Other Armed Forces Are Doing with Continuous Process Improvement
The Army is not the only branch of the armed forces with a renewed focus on continuous process improvement:
Department of the Navy, comprising the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps: The Department of the Navy’s Lean Six Sigma efforts started about five years ago, but the full-blown deployment happened in 2006, after Donald Winter came on board as the secretary of the Navy. Like the Army’s Kirby, he also worked at Northrop Grumman Corp. and TRW Automotive and was familiar with Lean Six Sigma.
So far, the Department of the Navy has trained or is training 30 Master Black Belts, 1,001 Black Belts and 4,221 Green Belts. More than 7,900 Champions also have been trained. The Department of the Navy offers an online White Belt course, which more than 29,000 personnel have taken. Nicholas Kunesh, special assistant to the secretary of the Navy, estimates savings for 2006 and 2007 to be $450 million. The return on investment: 4-to-1.
U.S. Air Force: Launched this year, Air Force Smart Operations 21 (AFSO 21) is the Air Force’s organization-wide continuous improvement effort. Headed by Gen. T. Michael
Mosley, Air Force chief of staff; and Michael Wynne, secretary of the Air
Force. The effort uses primarily Lean Six Sigma and elements of Six Sigma, the theory of constraints and business process reengineering.
More than 400 Green Belts, 110 Black Belts and 13 Master Black Belts have been or are being trained. Another 50 Black Belts and 50 Master Black Belts are scheduled for training. While project-tracking software lists 65 projects completed and 128 in progress, “there are many more projects and initiatives that have been accomplished,” said Lt. Col. Jim Schaefer with Air Force media relations. He said the Air Force is building on several years of experience in its Air Logistics Centers, which received two Shingo Prizes last year.
Lt. Col. Schaefer did not provide savings figures, but he said the “Air Force has already committed to a 40,000-manpower reduction without impairing its operational capabilities due in part to efficiencies gained using AFSO 21 tools and principles.” The Air Force recently awarded a $99 million blanket purchase agreement for consulting to support the program.
Other Army Lean Six Sigma project improvements include:
1.Streamlining the recruiting process – The U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox used value stream analysis to analyze and improve the Army’s recruiting process to better meet recruiting goals. The previous process for recruits to enter the Army required 32 steps, 27 approvals and 47 handoffs of information or applicants. With the new process in place, only 11 steps, 14 approvals and 14 handoffs will be required.
2.Preventing food waste at West Point – Five young cadets at West Point focused a project on what are known as “voluntary meals” at the academy. “Cadets don’t have to go to supper on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” Rezek explained. Using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), the five Green Belt candidates determined how to forecast how many students will show up for a given voluntary meal, making food planning easier and more cost efficient.
3. Improving foreign military sales – The Army Security Assistance Command has used Lean Six Sigma to improve the processes involved in foreign military sales. Project results reduced lead times by 25 percent, raised the quality of the processes and cut administrative costs by $3.2 million.
Marketable Skills
As an all-volunteer force, today’s Army is acutely aware of the recruitment potential of providing its personnel with skills that will be marketable in civilian life.
“We are certainly using the ability to gain skills, Lean Six Sigma among them, as part of professional development enhancements, which the Army does very well,” Kirby said. The Army has even developed its own program for certifying Belts.
Although it is too early in the deployment to see a significant number of Army-trained Lean Six Sigma personnel taking their skills back to civilian life, Thompson could cite one example.
“An Army colonel I knew very well personally and professionally at Letterkenny Army Depot, Col. Bill Guinn, is very sought after in the consulting business today – not just in the military but with private companies,” he said. “Letterkenny was sort of a model we held up for a while on how to do this.” It was the first Army depot to win a Shingo Prize.
Looking to the Future
Along with the Army, the Air Force and Navy also are doing a full deployment to change the way their departments do business. (See “Other Armed Forces at a Glance.”)
In fact, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England recently issued a Department of Defense-wide memo stating that he wants to use Lean Six Sigma for the basis of continuous improvement across the DoD.
“If we are using Lean Six Sigma to solve complex problems, we need people on the same wavelength we’re on, speaking the same language throughout the enterprise,” Kirby said.
Thompson added, “Without [DoD] understanding of where we’re trying to go, it’ll be a little harder for us to make some of the changes we want to make.”
Thompson pointed out that Lean Six Sigma also is currently being used in some parts of the Internal Revenue Service and the CIA, adding that he thinks it is a positive thing that the methodology is taking root in other areas of government.
“Those who are in government service are beholden to the taxpayers,” Thompson said, “And this is a better deal for taxpayers.”
But foremost, the Army is banking on Lean Six Sigma to provide a better deal for the soldier.
Author: Elaine Schmidt
Article 18. Bringing Reform to Local Government
In rural America most county seats were placed within one day’s travel by buggy. In the West rural populations did not decline until the great depression and the 1930’s drought. But today’s Western and Midwest rural and small town populations have decreased to the point that county services and facilities can no longer be maintained. Most Western States are looking for ways to provide health care and other needed services to rural areas economically. Part of the solution is to reduce the number of counties referred to as consolidation. In this Part we will review the application of my Consolidation Reform Model when applied to county governments and to city governments. We will also review my Election Reform template proposal. There are literally hundreds of ways to bring better service to the public and lower taxes. The best way to approach any reform problem is in using Enterprise Lean to find the best solution.
How to get Efficiency in City Government
Budgeting for small cities means balancing of revenues and reserves against planned expenditures. Most city budgets are organized into primary activities called Funds, that are self-balancing accounts, used to record and maintain the assets, liabilities, fund equity, revenues, and expenditures for each. The following Funds are typical: General Fund, Sewer Fund, Parks Fund, Airport Fund, Solid Waste Fund, Cemetery Fund, Street fund and Capital Improvement Fund. Municipal Utilities usually has a separate budget under the Board of Public Works and operates the electric and water systems. A Capital Improvement Plan usually for five years is used to determine the future planned expenditures for improvements within each fund and the revenues expected to pay for each improvement.
Annually each Fund’s budget provides the details of the budgets for the Departments within the Fund. Within each Department is one or more Functions which the department performs usually providing some service to the public.
The approach here is to find the best way of doing the function, document it, then determine real cost of each Function in providing the service.
I recommend the use of a high level Lean Team to study all cross-functional process flows. The main objective of the Lean team is to find the best way of doing the service or the function and to document the process flow on a spread sheet. Where this works best is in studying the document flow of an application through the city office processes.
A time study analyst may also be used to time-study a Function’s processes. This process works best for repeated Functions such as mowing a public park. The time study analyst will determine the best method for doing the work and will determine the correct allowed time for each process. From this data the correct staffing can be determined and ultimately the correct budget for the Function.
I recommend Implementing Enterprise Lean theoughout the city government. Functional Lean Teams are also organized one for each function and meet once a week. These are the employees who actually do the work in performing the function. The main goal is in finding the best way to do each of the processes of the Function. The Lean team would depict both the detailed processes for the current method and the improved method of performing the Function on a wall chart. The best way I have found for doing this is to tape up white butcher paper around the walls of a conference room. The processes to be shown on the butcher paper are created on separate small pieces of paper and are taped to the butcher paper allowing the processes to be easily repositioned without permanently damaging the butcher paper. When a meeting is over the butcher paper can be easily rolled up and taken away. A wall chart has an advantage over that in a book when it is presented to the city administrator and the city council by the Lean Team.
The wall chart is then turned over to the budgeting department to be used in determining the staffing required and the function’s budget. Note that this method though not as exact as the Time-Study analyst method can be just as valid for staffing purposes in determining whether another person should be added or removed from the payroll.
The Lean Team approach costs less to implement and is generally better accepted by employees because they are empowered to solve their own work related problems.
I recommend the budgeting of Functions rather than Departments which gives greater control of the budget to the city administrator. I also recommend that a Budget Analyst review each of the Lean Teams’ process flows and estimate the hours and other costs incurred in doing the function and document the data on a spread sheet. I call this the Funding Formula for the function. The budget is determined multiplying the number of expected times that the function is to be done during the budget period by the Funding Formula. Note that once defined a Funding Formula can be used, with minor tweaking for cost of living increases, for budgeting until its processes change which may be for several years.
I also recommend that the reform of a Cities obsolete IT Systems be delayed until the State has the opportunity to implement my recommended Cloud IT data system. This will give the City the up grade it needs in its IT systems at virtually no cost. The Cloud System will provide data processing for the city. All the city will have to do is to connect to the States Cloud system through the internet.
Ideas for Rebuilding Inner Cities
An examination of the situation of inner city residents yields only one positive thing all many residents have is free time along with an enormous desire to change their current prospects. What they don’t have is nearly everything else.
The approach I recommend for rebuilding inner cities is the creation of safe havens. Environmental enclaves where one is relatively safe and nurturing, education and commerce can be protected.
Recommendation 1. Make Schools Safe for Learning.
Move police stations to the schools across the street if possible. Place cameras everywhere there might be violence in the school. Make the schools the safest place in the city. Open the school libraries and gymnasiums using volunteers after school and at night for tutoring and adult education.
Recommendation 2. Make the School the hub of the Community.
Emphasize cradle to grave education. Education should start with babies in the “Parents as Teachers Program” progress through kindergarten and into the public schools and beyond. The recently enacted “No Child Left behind Program” holds public schools, more correctly teachers, responsible for the educational progress of their students. This is a controversial mandate in the inner city because it will take super human effort by the best teachers to meet the requirements. The corollary to this should be that no bright child should be held back allowing them to skip grades until they are challenged.
This should be the environment which nurturers the students which will attend charter high schools and job training technical schools.
Recommendation 3. Bolster Neighborhoods by Creating a “Sense of Community”.
We need to recognize the importance of the “Sense of Community”. Most high rise tenements built for welfare families fail for this reason. The “sense of community” fails when the majority of the people living in an urban community cannot recognize those who actually live in the area. With increased anonymity comes increased crime that forces the elderly to barricade themselves in their apartments.
The idea of a “sense of community” can be developed by fencing off floors within a high rise apartment building providing a safe haven for those who live there. Place cameras in public areas. Block off through streets creating urban enclaves and provide local police stations with foot or bicycle patrols. Provide recreation facilities for the youth and encourage the development of a micro economy. Active community organizations provide involvement opportunities for citizens of the enclaves developing a source of community pride.
Extreme high crime communities should be gated and fenced with surveillance cameras everywhere. As more and more of the community enclaves are developed gangs and their accompanying crime can be forced into a small enough area where police can get control of the situation.
Recommendation 4. Encourage the Development of Community Micro Economies
A micro economy occurs when local people get together to form small businesses that fill the needs of the community. In many cases the county extension offices as a part of the states university system nurture these small businesses. The State and or the Federal Government may provide the necessary seed money for the startup of the businesses. Micro economies are important because they provide a safety net for the families in the community. The positive micro economy is a much more desirable and less expensive than the crime and drug dealers, which form the negative economy.
Examples of micro economy businesses are day nurseries, home run catalog businesses, gift shops and craft manufacturing. Often festivals and annual community events aimed at bringing tourists to the area bolster these businesses. But for the most part they should be self-sustaining and provide day to day services in the community.
Recommendations 5. Form Community Volunteer Groups to Cleanup the City.
Cleanup city streets especially vacant city lots where community gardens can be established. One innovative way of doing this is to have local contractors establish fenced brick yards where used bricks can be purchased from the public. It won’t be long before vacant lots will be brick free for gardeners.
Recommendation 6. City Government Reform.
Lowering city property and business taxes establishes a growth program that attracts residents and businesses back to the city. This fuels the creation of needed jobs and bolsters the cities economy. Raising property and business taxes does just the opposite. The revenue to lower taxes is made available when city government is reformed and downsized.
Consolidation of City Governments or Urban Secession? Its all about how to provide better services to urban dwellers with the most efficiency. Most large cities do not provide adequate crime prevention and protection to their city residents fueling the desire for some communities to secede. At the same time there are movements to combine city governments so that services such as fire and police can gain economy of scale. Whether to combine or to secede depends largely on local conditions such as tax bases and economies. Which brings up a third possibility “Government Reform” by allowing local ward committees to manage some local services. And a fourth possibility is for city governments to gain the economies of scale they desire through reciprocal agreements with other cities to share city services.
By not asking the right questions cities and suburban communities can find themselves with even greater problems than they have now. For example an urban community that wishes to secede from a greater metropolitan city to gain local control of its services will need to know if they have enough of a tax base to provide those services. If they don’t then they should pursue the third option to gain local control of some services provided to their community. In other words the metropolitan government should be reformed by allowing decisions on local services to be made at the local level. This is the same Japanese management principle that I have recommended elsewhere to make bureaucracies more responsive by “driving down the decision making power to the lowest level of effectiveness”. This type of arrangement works well where inner city crime is high. and local control can be established by blocking off through streets and in forming gated communities. These communities should have their own police station. The goal here is to establish a “Sense of Community” which I would define as when a majority of the community knows if someone either lives in the community or is an outsider. I have recommended that this method be used to drive crime out of a major metropolitan area by establishing small communities one at a time. Each community would need a micro economy to make it sustainable.
It is to the advantage of some more affluent suburban cities to annex a neighboring depressed city. Especially those that prevent it from growing through expansion.
Community Development and Economic Growth Many small towns and communities often confuse “Community Development” and “Economic Growth” as going hand in hand. They seem to think that all community development projects lead to economic growth. While it is true that enhancement of community services can encourage economic growth indirectly a more focused approach will yield better results.
For example many communities seek out large chain store mall developments while discouraging manufacturing as being undesirable. This may be a good policy if there are nearby manufacturing facilities or tourist sites that can draw outside revenue. True economic growth comes from revenues brought into the community from outside. While large chain stores in fancy malls bring customers from surrounding communities and encourage people to move to the community they also replace the mom and pop stores, which were the foundation of the community. The sales employees may be better off through higher wages and benefits but what you are really seeing happening is a kind of churning of the community’s economy. When the communities leaders grant special tax incentives and other giveaways such as free land to the mall developers there can be a near zero result in economic growth.
The economic churning while for the most part may bring improvement to the community but it cannot match the manufacturing and tourist revenues that is needed for real economic growth. The bottom line is to provide tax incentives for the manufacturing and tourist industries that will bring in revenues from outside the community. The big chain store malls will follow these revenues to the community without the extra incentives.
A “Sense of Community” and Micro Economies in Depressed Areas
A micro economy occurs when local people get together to form small businesses that fill the needs of the community. In many cases the county extension offices as a part of the states university system nurture these small businesses. The State and or the Federal Government may provide the necessary seed money for the startup of the businesses. Micro economies are important because they provide a safety net for the families in the community. The positive micro economy is a much more desirable and less expensive than the crime and drug dealers, which form the negative economy.
Examples of micro economy businesses are day nurseries, home run catalog businesses, gift shops and craft manufacturing. Often festivals and annual community events aimed at bringing tourists to the area bolster these businesses. But for the most part they should be self-sustaining and provide day to day services in the community.
We need to recognize the importance of the “Sense of Community”. Most high rise tenements built for welfare families fail for this reason. The “sense of community” fails when the majority of the people living in an urban community cannot recognize those who actually live in the area. With increased anonymity comes increased crime that forces the elderly to barricade themselves in their apartments.
The idea of a “sense of community” can be developed by blocking off through streets in urban environments, providing a local police station with foot or bicycle patrols, providing recreation facilities for the youth and encouraging the development of a micro economy. Active community organizations provide involvement opportunities for its citizens developing a source of community pride. In extreme high crime areas communities should be gated and fenced with surveillance cameras everywhere. As more and more of the communities are developed gangs and their accompanying crime can be forced into a small enough area where police can get control of the situation.
Breathing New Life into Contiguous Depressed City Suburbs
Many older metropolitan cities especially in the mid-west and eastern US have for the last sixty to seventy years experienced the decline of the suburban towns encircling it. These neighborhood towns are mostly independent with each having its own city government charter and school district. The main difference between them is that unlike small rural towns each is composed of a unique socioeconomic level. Some are wealthy prosperous towns contiguous with lower socioeconomic towns that have been in decline for decades. The most prosperous communities unable to expand their city limits have fueled the flight to new suburban communities far from the metropolitan center. Now with wealthy inner cities surrounded by blighted neighboring towns it is time for them enter into a type of “suburban renewal” once thought only done in metropolitan city centers.
The approach here is for a wealthy community to annex a neighboring town disbanding its city government charter and integrating its school district with its own. The advantage for the wealthy city is in obtaining space to expand and grow. While the advantage for the annexed city would be to experience new life and enhanced property values. In some cases just an image change is enough to bring new life to a community. The most viable situations would be where most of the blighted areas would be bulldozed and new homes and businesses built. This whole process has become more capable through the recent US Supreme Court’s ruling on condemning private property for private redevelopment. Before this ruling this would have been difficult if not impossible. While many states have recently enacted laws restricting the application of this new ruling law makers have failed to see the benefits of the ruling.
How to get Efficiency in City Government
Budgeting for small cities means balancing of revenues and reserves against planned expenditures. Most city budgets are organized into primary activities called Funds, that are self-balancing accounts, used to record and maintain the assets, liabilities, fund equity, revenues, and expenditures for each. The following Funds are typical: General Fund, Sewer Fund, Parks Fund, Airport Fund, Solid Waste Fund, Cemetery Fund, Street fund and Capital Improvement Fund. Municipal Utilities usually has a separate budget under the Board of Public Works and operates the electric and water systems. A Capital Improvement Plan usually for five years is used to determine the future planned expenditures for improvements within each fund and the revenues expected to pay for each improvement.
Annually each Fund’s budget provides the details of the budgets for the Departments within the Fund. Within each Department is one or more Functions which the department performs usually providing some service to the public.
The approach here is to find the best way of doing the function, document it, then determine real cost of each Function in providing the service.
I recommend the use of a high level Lean Team to study all cross-functional process flows. The main objective of the Lean team is to find the best way of doing the service or the function and to document the process flow on a spread sheet. Where this works best is in studying the document flow of an application through the city office processes.
A time study analyst may also be used to time-study a Function’s processes. This process works best for repeated Functions such as mowing a public park. The time study analyst will determine the best method for doing the work and will determine the correct allowed time for each process. From this data the correct staffing can be determined and ultimately the correct budget for the Function.
I recommend Implementing Enterprise Lean theoughout the city government. Functional Lean Teams are also organized one for each function and meet once a week. These are the employees who actually do the work in performing the function. The main goal is in finding the best way to do each of the processes of the Function. The Lean team would depict both the detailed processes for the current method and the improved method of performing the Function on a wall chart. The best way I have found for doing this is to tape up white butcher paper around the walls of a conference room. The processes to be shown on the butcher paper are created on separate small pieces of paper and are taped to the butcher paper allowing the processes to be easily repositioned without permanently damaging the butcher paper. When a meeting is over the butcher paper can be easily rolled up and taken away. A wall chart has an advantage over that in a book when it is presented to the city administrator and the city council by the Lean Team.
The wall chart is then turned over to the budgeting department to be used in determining the staffing required and the function’s budget. Note that this method though not as exact as the Time-Study analyst method can be just as valid for staffing purposes in determining whether another person should be added or removed from the payroll.
The Lean Team approach costs less to implement and is generally better accepted by employees because they are empowered to solve their own work related problems.
I recommend the budgeting of Functions rather than Departments which gives greater control of the budget to the city administrator. I also recommend that a Budget Analyst review each of the Lean Teams’ process flows and estimate the hours and other costs incurred in doing the function and document the data on a spread sheet. I call this the Funding Formula for the function. The budget is determined multiplying the number of expected times that the function is to be done during the budget period by the Funding Formula. Note that once defined a Funding Formula can be used, with minor tweaking for cost of living increases, for budgeting until its processes change which may be for several years.
I also recommend that the reform of a Cities obsolete IT Systems be delayed until the State has the opportunity to implement my recommended Cloud IT data system. This will give the City the up grade it needs in its IT systems at virtually no cost. The Cloud System will provide data processing for the city. All the city will have to do is to connect to the States Cloud system through the internet.
Ideas for Rebuilding Inner Cities
An examination of the situation of inner city residents yields only one positive thing all many residents have is free time along with an enormous desire to change their current prospects. What they don’t have is nearly everything else.
The approach I recommend for rebuilding inner cities is the creation of safe havens. Environmental enclaves where one is relatively safe and nurturing, education and commerce can be protected.
Recommendation 1. Make Schools Safe for Learning.
Move police stations to the schools across the street if possible. Place cameras everywhere there might be violence in the school. Make the schools the safest place in the city. Open the school libraries and gymnasiums using volunteers after school and at night for tutoring and adult education.
Recommendation 2. Make the School the hub of the Community.
Emphasize cradle to grave education. Education should start with babies in the “Parents as Teachers Program” progress through kindergarten and into the public schools and beyond. The recently enacted “No Child Left behind Program” holds public schools, more correctly teachers, responsible for the educational progress of their students. This is a controversial mandate in the inner city because it will take super human effort by the best teachers to meet the requirements. The corollary to this should be that no bright child should be held back allowing them to skip grades until they are challenged.
This should be the environment which nurturers the students which will attend charter high schools and job training technical schools.
Recommendation 3. Bolster Neighborhoods by Creating a “Sense of Community”.
We need to recognize the importance of the “Sense of Community”. Most high rise tenements built for welfare families fail for this reason. The “sense of community” fails when the majority of the people living in an urban community cannot recognize those who actually live in the area. With increased anonymity comes increased crime that forces the elderly to barricade themselves in their apartments.
The idea of a “sense of community” can be developed by fencing off floors within a high rise apartment building providing a safe haven for those who live there. Place cameras in public areas. Block off through streets creating urban enclaves and provide local police stations with foot or bicycle patrols. Provide recreation facilities for the youth and encourage the development of a micro economy. Active community organizations provide involvement opportunities for citizens of the enclaves developing a source of community pride.
Extreme high crime communities should be gated and fenced with surveillance cameras everywhere. As more and more of the community enclaves are developed gangs and their accompanying crime can be forced into a small enough area where police can get control of the situation.
Recommendation 4. Encourage the Development of Community Micro Economies
A micro economy occurs when local people get together to form small businesses that fill the needs of the community. In many cases the county extension offices as a part of the states university system nurture these small businesses. The State and or the Federal Government may provide the necessary seed money for the startup of the businesses. Micro economies are important because they provide a safety net for the families in the community. The positive micro economy is a much more desirable and less expensive than the crime and drug dealers, which form the negative economy.
Examples of micro economy businesses are day nurseries, home run catalog businesses, gift shops and craft manufacturing. Often festivals and annual community events aimed at bringing tourists to the area bolster these businesses. But for the most part they should be self-sustaining and provide day to day services in the community.
Recommendations 5. Form Community Volunteer Groups to Cleanup the City.
Cleanup city streets especially vacant city lots where community gardens can be established. One innovative way of doing this is to have local contractors establish fenced brick yards where used bricks can be purchased from the public. It won’t be long before vacant lots will be brick free for gardeners.
Recommendation 6. City Government Reform.
Lowering city property and business taxes establishes a growth program that attracts residents and businesses back to the city. This fuels the creation of needed jobs and bolsters the cities economy. Raising property and business taxes does just the opposite. The revenue to lower taxes is made available when city government is reformed and downsized.
Consolidation of City Governments or Urban Secession? Its all about how to provide better services to urban dwellers with the most efficiency. Most large cities do not provide adequate crime prevention and protection to their city residents fueling the desire for some communities to secede. At the same time there are movements to combine city governments so that services such as fire and police can gain economy of scale. Whether to combine or to secede depends largely on local conditions such as tax bases and economies. Which brings up a third possibility “Government Reform” by allowing local ward committees to manage some local services. And a fourth possibility is for city governments to gain the economies of scale they desire through reciprocal agreements with other cities to share city services.
By not asking the right questions cities and suburban communities can find themselves with even greater problems than they have now. For example an urban community that wishes to secede from a greater metropolitan city to gain local control of its services will need to know if they have enough of a tax base to provide those services. If they don’t then they should pursue the third option to gain local control of some services provided to their community. In other words the metropolitan government should be reformed by allowing decisions on local services to be made at the local level. This is the same Japanese management principle that I have recommended elsewhere to make bureaucracies more responsive by “driving down the decision making power to the lowest level of effectiveness”. This type of arrangement works well where inner city crime is high. and local control can be established by blocking off through streets and in forming gated communities. These communities should have their own police station. The goal here is to establish a “Sense of Community” which I would define as when a majority of the community knows if someone either lives in the community or is an outsider. I have recommended that this method be used to drive crime out of a major metropolitan area by establishing small communities one at a time. Each community would need a micro economy to make it sustainable.
It is to the advantage of some more affluent suburban cities to annex a neighboring depressed city. Especially those that prevent it from growing through expansion.
Community Development and Economic Growth Many small towns and communities often confuse “Community Development” and “Economic Growth” as going hand in hand. They seem to think that all community development projects lead to economic growth. While it is true that enhancement of community services can encourage economic growth indirectly a more focused approach will yield better results.
For example many communities seek out large chain store mall developments while discouraging manufacturing as being undesirable. This may be a good policy if there are nearby manufacturing facilities or tourist sites that can draw outside revenue. True economic growth comes from revenues brought into the community from outside. While large chain stores in fancy malls bring customers from surrounding communities and encourage people to move to the community they also replace the mom and pop stores, which were the foundation of the community. The sales employees may be better off through higher wages and benefits but what you are really seeing happening is a kind of churning of the community’s economy. When the communities leaders grant special tax incentives and other giveaways such as free land to the mall developers there can be a near zero result in economic growth.
The economic churning while for the most part may bring improvement to the community but it cannot match the manufacturing and tourist revenues that is needed for real economic growth. The bottom line is to provide tax incentives for the manufacturing and tourist industries that will bring in revenues from outside the community. The big chain store malls will follow these revenues to the community without the extra incentives.
A “Sense of Community” and Micro Economies in Depressed Areas
A micro economy occurs when local people get together to form small businesses that fill the needs of the community. In many cases the county extension offices as a part of the states university system nurture these small businesses. The State and or the Federal Government may provide the necessary seed money for the startup of the businesses. Micro economies are important because they provide a safety net for the families in the community. The positive micro economy is a much more desirable and less expensive than the crime and drug dealers, which form the negative economy.
Examples of micro economy businesses are day nurseries, home run catalog businesses, gift shops and craft manufacturing. Often festivals and annual community events aimed at bringing tourists to the area bolster these businesses. But for the most part they should be self-sustaining and provide day to day services in the community.
We need to recognize the importance of the “Sense of Community”. Most high rise tenements built for welfare families fail for this reason. The “sense of community” fails when the majority of the people living in an urban community cannot recognize those who actually live in the area. With increased anonymity comes increased crime that forces the elderly to barricade themselves in their apartments.
The idea of a “sense of community” can be developed by blocking off through streets in urban environments, providing a local police station with foot or bicycle patrols, providing recreation facilities for the youth and encouraging the development of a micro economy. Active community organizations provide involvement opportunities for its citizens developing a source of community pride. In extreme high crime areas communities should be gated and fenced with surveillance cameras everywhere. As more and more of the communities are developed gangs and their accompanying crime can be forced into a small enough area where police can get control of the situation.
Breathing New Life into Contiguous Depressed City Suburbs
Many older metropolitan cities especially in the mid-west and eastern US have for the last sixty to seventy years experienced the decline of the suburban towns encircling it. These neighborhood towns are mostly independent with each having its own city government charter and school district. The main difference between them is that unlike small rural towns each is composed of a unique socioeconomic level. Some are wealthy prosperous towns contiguous with lower socioeconomic towns that have been in decline for decades. The most prosperous communities unable to expand their city limits have fueled the flight to new suburban communities far from the metropolitan center. Now with wealthy inner cities surrounded by blighted neighboring towns it is time for them enter into a type of “suburban renewal” once thought only done in metropolitan city centers.
The approach here is for a wealthy community to annex a neighboring town disbanding its city government charter and integrating its school district with its own. The advantage for the wealthy city is in obtaining space to expand and grow. While the advantage for the annexed city would be to experience new life and enhanced property values. In some cases just an image change is enough to bring new life to a community. The most viable situations would be where most of the blighted areas would be bulldozed and new homes and businesses built. This whole process has become more capable through the recent US Supreme Court’s ruling on condemning private property for private redevelopment. Before this ruling this would have been difficult if not impossible. While many states have recently enacted laws restricting the application of this new ruling law makers have failed to see the benefits of the ruling.
Article 17. Example of My Experience with Alexander Proudfoot
Alexander Proudfoot Techniques
The following is a detailed example of my personal experience using Alexander Proudfoot techniques. This is an example is of a company wide downsizing operation made by Alexander Proudfoot. The client company was Clark Equipment at the Battle Creek, Michigan plant. Clark Equipment is a well-known forklift manufacturer. The company was under heavy competition from Japanese competitors using TQM and had to resort to extreme measures to survive. My assignment was in the Production Control Department and was to analyze the function, “servicing the manufacturing assembly line”. Several forklift drivers were involved in the transporting of parts on a timely basis to the manufacturing areas either to and from individual milling machines or directly to the assembly line of a particular forklift product.
My approach was to time study all the activities necessary to the servicing of the forklift production line. I followed and timed each forklift driver into the storage yards and counted the number of parts loaded on each pallet for each trip making sure that I had missed nothing. The number of parts to be loaded on the pallets was specified by the Production Control Planning System. My job was to be sure that the pallets were fully loaded or contained all of the parts required. At the assembly line the pallets of parts were placed near the assembly line so that they could be easily moved to the assembly line worker as needed. The study of the manufacturing areas took me about two weeks.
Now let’s do the data analysis. I needed to determine what “elemental product” was being produced by the Function. This appears to be difficult but what you must do is to break down all of the processes observed and find the smallest element. In other words this element or a multiple of it can be found in all of the processes being performed in doing this function. Since all processes involved using a forklift I found that the shortest process was when a forklift moved a pallet from its dropped location near the assembly line to the assembly line. I called this process a “forklift move” and the name of the element became “Move”, which I determined to be one minute long. This was very convenient because the entire analysis was done in minutes. If the Product “Move” had been five minutes long you would simply divide the total time for each process by five to get the number of move elements. Since each pallet moved had parts on it for more than one forklift and since I had counted and recorded the number of parts on all of the pallets we can analyze each pallet to determine if more than one part is required for each forklift. Adding the total time for the forklift driver to go to the storage area count the number of parts needed put them on a particular pallet and bring the pallet to the assembly area gives us the time to the drop-off place near the assembly line. To that we add the one minute required for a second forklift driver to bring the pallet from the staging area to the assembly line worker. We divide this total time by the number of parts moved (adjusted for the number of parts required per forklift). This process is repeated for all the pallets. When added together we know the total time spent in servicing this particular forklift product’s production line.
We cannot assume that all work will be performed at the standard 100% rate so we assume the actual rate is closer to 75% for staffing which adds 25% more time to the total. Multiplying this total adjusted time to service one forklift product by the current production rate (forklifts per month) gives us the adjusted time spent by all the forklift drivers for the month. When we convert the time in minutes to hours and divide this by the standard hours worked per month by a forklift driver we arrive at the total number of forklift drivers required at this particular production rate.
Given the total adjusted time to service one forklift product we can calculate Staffing levels for any manufacturing rate. It was also determined that since all the forklift products contained nearly the same number of parts the analysis could be used for all of the companies forklift products made on this particular production line.
Now let’s review the actual results of this analysis. During the study I stayed focused on the processes being performed and the time actually being spent. But since the analysis was being done in the cold of winter I noticed that every time I stopped by one of the four or five warming huts five or six people would get up and leave. Since I had no idea what these people were supposed to be doing I paid little attention to them. The results were shocking to the Clark Company senior management when they discovered that the actual number of employees required could be reduced by sixty a more than 50% reduction. The annual savings adjusted for today’s dollars amounted to more than one million dollars. If I had not conducted the study myself I probably would not have believed the results. After the removal of the redundant employees the Short interval Scheduling reporting was implemented.
Comments by the Author
What’s wrong with this method of downsizing? Nothing if the plant is in danger of shutting its doors and quick solution must be had. But the method destroys employee morale by such severe measures and may create a permanent problem with unions resulting in ill will lasting for years. The Short Interval Scheduling reporting system forcibly maintains employee productivity. The costs are high in that there is little or no employee innovation for continuous improvement to the work methods. Note that this approach is used by Alexander Proudfoot through out the plant and in the office areas. It’s a real killer for morale and employee innovation. This is a very expensive operation because Management Consultants receive a substantial fee for their efforts.
The Enterprise Lean with Work Measurement Method (author’s recommended method)
The objective of the amateur method was simply to reduce personnel mostly likely to meet a short fall in the budget. The objective of the Management Consulting secret method is simply to downsize to known level determined by Work Measurement and to maintain production and service levels using the Short Interval Scheduling reporting system.
The objective of the Enterprise Lean with Work Measurement method is to first fix the systems then find the correct Right-Size staffing and then determine precisely what the costs are for each Function allowing us to make a bottoms-up budget. This is followed by the replacement the 19th century bureaucratic structure found in industry and government with a 21st century Team Managed organization with fewer levels of management that encourages innovation by empowering both management and employees.
Bureaucratic Organizations have a reputation for resisting change but it is difficult for them to reject a method that brings increased productivity and innovation to the organization. What’s different? The once multilevel career path is now one or two steps from the Functional Team Management to the Steering Management Team. Gone are the hundreds of hours of endless manipulation of employee evaluations. Gone also is the endless bickering and negotiation over the organization’s budget.
The following is a detailed example of my personal experience using Alexander Proudfoot techniques. This is an example is of a company wide downsizing operation made by Alexander Proudfoot. The client company was Clark Equipment at the Battle Creek, Michigan plant. Clark Equipment is a well-known forklift manufacturer. The company was under heavy competition from Japanese competitors using TQM and had to resort to extreme measures to survive. My assignment was in the Production Control Department and was to analyze the function, “servicing the manufacturing assembly line”. Several forklift drivers were involved in the transporting of parts on a timely basis to the manufacturing areas either to and from individual milling machines or directly to the assembly line of a particular forklift product.
My approach was to time study all the activities necessary to the servicing of the forklift production line. I followed and timed each forklift driver into the storage yards and counted the number of parts loaded on each pallet for each trip making sure that I had missed nothing. The number of parts to be loaded on the pallets was specified by the Production Control Planning System. My job was to be sure that the pallets were fully loaded or contained all of the parts required. At the assembly line the pallets of parts were placed near the assembly line so that they could be easily moved to the assembly line worker as needed. The study of the manufacturing areas took me about two weeks.
Now let’s do the data analysis. I needed to determine what “elemental product” was being produced by the Function. This appears to be difficult but what you must do is to break down all of the processes observed and find the smallest element. In other words this element or a multiple of it can be found in all of the processes being performed in doing this function. Since all processes involved using a forklift I found that the shortest process was when a forklift moved a pallet from its dropped location near the assembly line to the assembly line. I called this process a “forklift move” and the name of the element became “Move”, which I determined to be one minute long. This was very convenient because the entire analysis was done in minutes. If the Product “Move” had been five minutes long you would simply divide the total time for each process by five to get the number of move elements. Since each pallet moved had parts on it for more than one forklift and since I had counted and recorded the number of parts on all of the pallets we can analyze each pallet to determine if more than one part is required for each forklift. Adding the total time for the forklift driver to go to the storage area count the number of parts needed put them on a particular pallet and bring the pallet to the assembly area gives us the time to the drop-off place near the assembly line. To that we add the one minute required for a second forklift driver to bring the pallet from the staging area to the assembly line worker. We divide this total time by the number of parts moved (adjusted for the number of parts required per forklift). This process is repeated for all the pallets. When added together we know the total time spent in servicing this particular forklift product’s production line.
We cannot assume that all work will be performed at the standard 100% rate so we assume the actual rate is closer to 75% for staffing which adds 25% more time to the total. Multiplying this total adjusted time to service one forklift product by the current production rate (forklifts per month) gives us the adjusted time spent by all the forklift drivers for the month. When we convert the time in minutes to hours and divide this by the standard hours worked per month by a forklift driver we arrive at the total number of forklift drivers required at this particular production rate.
Given the total adjusted time to service one forklift product we can calculate Staffing levels for any manufacturing rate. It was also determined that since all the forklift products contained nearly the same number of parts the analysis could be used for all of the companies forklift products made on this particular production line.
Now let’s review the actual results of this analysis. During the study I stayed focused on the processes being performed and the time actually being spent. But since the analysis was being done in the cold of winter I noticed that every time I stopped by one of the four or five warming huts five or six people would get up and leave. Since I had no idea what these people were supposed to be doing I paid little attention to them. The results were shocking to the Clark Company senior management when they discovered that the actual number of employees required could be reduced by sixty a more than 50% reduction. The annual savings adjusted for today’s dollars amounted to more than one million dollars. If I had not conducted the study myself I probably would not have believed the results. After the removal of the redundant employees the Short interval Scheduling reporting was implemented.
Comments by the Author
What’s wrong with this method of downsizing? Nothing if the plant is in danger of shutting its doors and quick solution must be had. But the method destroys employee morale by such severe measures and may create a permanent problem with unions resulting in ill will lasting for years. The Short Interval Scheduling reporting system forcibly maintains employee productivity. The costs are high in that there is little or no employee innovation for continuous improvement to the work methods. Note that this approach is used by Alexander Proudfoot through out the plant and in the office areas. It’s a real killer for morale and employee innovation. This is a very expensive operation because Management Consultants receive a substantial fee for their efforts.
The Enterprise Lean with Work Measurement Method (author’s recommended method)
The objective of the amateur method was simply to reduce personnel mostly likely to meet a short fall in the budget. The objective of the Management Consulting secret method is simply to downsize to known level determined by Work Measurement and to maintain production and service levels using the Short Interval Scheduling reporting system.
The objective of the Enterprise Lean with Work Measurement method is to first fix the systems then find the correct Right-Size staffing and then determine precisely what the costs are for each Function allowing us to make a bottoms-up budget. This is followed by the replacement the 19th century bureaucratic structure found in industry and government with a 21st century Team Managed organization with fewer levels of management that encourages innovation by empowering both management and employees.
Bureaucratic Organizations have a reputation for resisting change but it is difficult for them to reject a method that brings increased productivity and innovation to the organization. What’s different? The once multilevel career path is now one or two steps from the Functional Team Management to the Steering Management Team. Gone are the hundreds of hours of endless manipulation of employee evaluations. Gone also is the endless bickering and negotiation over the organization’s budget.
Article 16. Amateur Versus Professional Downsizing
Downsizing by Donald Rumsfeld
“Five Ways to Downsize Government” By: Donald H. Rumsfeld
Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication Date: August 4, 1995
Ref. 4. Donald H. Rumsfeld article “Five Ways to Downsize Government” Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication August 4, 1995 Publisher: The Heartland Institute. http://heartland.org/.
“As Congress grapples with the challenge of downsizing or eliminating bureaucracies that haven’t been critically reexamined for many decades, its Members would do well to consider some of the lessons learned by the businessmen and -women who made their companies more competitive in the 1990s. I have a somewhat unusual perspective on this issue, having spent roughly twenty years in the federal government and another twenty in the corporate world. Here, based on my own experience, are five guidelines for members of Congress:
Define the “Core” Business
We must ask whether a problem is truly a federal responsibility, or can it be handled better by voluntary organizations, local governments, or state governments. For the federal government, the four basic departments–State, Defense, Justice, and Treasury–have a solid basis for existence. The others were either more narrowly based, an afterthought, or both. These latter departments should be scrutinized for elimination, downsizing, reorganization, movement to state and local governments, or privatization.
Cut Sharply and Rapidly
Cut sharply and rapidly. Don’t wait. Whatever it is you do, the odds are overwhelming that you should have done more–rather than less–and that you should have done it sooner, rather than later. There are so many pressures in Washington, D.C. to preserve the status quo that the most frequent mistake is to make too few changes or to cut too little. Do it once. Do it well. And then let people get back to work. Don’t try to cut the dog’s tail off one inch at a time, hoping it won’t hurt as much.
Eliminate Bureaucracy
Congress should move swiftly to cut management and get personnel costs under control. It is guaranteed that there are more managers and more staff in the federal government than are needed. In less than seven months, Scott Paper Company eliminated 11,200 people, one-third of its workforce. The company cut 71 percent of the headquarters staff, 50 percent of management, and 20 percent of the hourly employees. If the national government is as overstaffed as was Scott Paper, some 140,000 government managers could be cut immediately, saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Reorder the Organizational Chart
Probably one-half to two-thirds of the non-central departments are no longer needed in their current form. For example, the Republican proposal to close the 93-year-old Department of Commerce seems reasonable to me. That department lacks a clear sense of mission, and it duplicates the work of dozens of other departments and agencies: a sign that taxpayers could do without it in its present form. The same likely could be said for other departments, such as Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs.
Sell Unessential Assets
Why is the federal government borrowing over $200 billion a year to cover its deficit when it is sitting on billions of dollars of assets that could and should be sold to the private sector? Some twenty years ago, I chaired the Property Review Board in the Nixon Administration, which supervised the evaluation of hundreds of federal real properties for movement to their highest and best use outside of government. The resistance in both the Executive and Legislative branches was enormous. That opportunity is still there and, given the current budget situation, must be seized.
As Congress goes about the business of putting meat on the bones of the balanced budget plan passed earlier this year, it will have to make tough decisions. I recognize the difficulty of that task, having once served in the House. But I’ve learned that decisions made every day in the corporate world are sometimes even more difficult because the very survival of a company can be at stake.
The choices to be made affect real people with careers, mortgages to pay, and families to raise. But Congress oversees an enterprise facing bankruptcy, and the consequences of not acting now, swiftly and firmly, will be devastating for a far greater number of people. The right decisions made now, however tough, will help restore the long-term health of the government, our economy, and our country.
Donald H. Rumsfeld has served as a member of Congress, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, chief of staff to President Ford, and, from 1975 to 1977, Secretary of Defense. Between 1977 and 1985 he was CEO of G.D. Searle, and from 1990 to 1993 he was Chairman and CEO of General Instrument Corporation.”
Comments by the Author
My readers will note that this article was written before 9-11 and the mid-east wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Without getting into what has happened in the Bush Administration in the article Rumsfeld does give amateur advice that is typical among CEO’s in industry. His approach to determining what really needs to be done, the elimination of redundant organizations is a necessary first step and is commendable. However some may disagree with his Departmental choices for elimination. I agree with Rumsfeld that his advice to “Cut Sharply and Rapidly” and “eliminate Bureaucracy” will bring significant savings to the government but the real question becomes how much do you cut and still keep the services that you want. By the elimination of bureaucracy he is referring to cutting out levels of management and not the complete elimination of the bureaucratic organization. Apparently he was unfamiliar with Team Management as a replacement for bureaucracy.
What you have here is the typical top-down approach to downsizing but I prefer the bottom-up approach through Work Measurement. The advantage is that while you may get some efficiency in government from the top-down approach you will be able to eliminate all the inefficient activities through the bottom-up approach. A second problem is that when using the Rumsfeld approach, eliminating a portion of the bureaucracy, it is not a permanent reduction in staff and it is only a matter of time before the remaining bureaucracy has regained back its staffing level. I propose that the best way of downsizing is in using Lean Teams made up of trained government employees to study government process flows and determine the best way of doing each process in government. You should always fix the systems first. The Rumsfeld approach makes no effort to fix the organization’s systems. The Lean Team study data can then be used for determining the exact staffing required called Right-Sizing and is more precise than Rumsfeld’s downsizing which guesses at the number of employees which can be laid off before vital services are affected.
A significant difference also occurs when reducing staff during budget cuts. The top down method tends to lay-off those at the bottom usually the most recently employed. The Lean Team Right-Sizing reform method keeps in tact those employees that are actually doing the work eliminating those that are redundant including a significant number of management staff. In all cases I recommend using the Lean Team method.
Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute
A book by Chris Edwards gives his opinion of what federal programs to downsize and is sponsored by the Cato Institute. Ref. 7.Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato article: Downsizing the Federal Government.
My website is dedicated to a “method” of Right-Sizing to get the highest efficiency with the most effectiveness possible through my Reform Models and leaves what programs to cut to government leaders and authors such as Chris Edwards. I recommend that programs to be cut be selected before implementing my Government Reform Models in the remaining portions of government.
The Consolidation Model provides the best means for consolidation of various agencies that have duplicated responsibility for some government function. Using Enterprise Lean trained personnel representing each agency a team is formed to find the “best way” to consolidate the agencies. The objective is provide for a smooth transition by using Work Measurement to know what the proper staffing should be and by changing the new organization into a Team Managed
From Downsizing the Federal Government
By Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato Institute
The federal government is running massive budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Without a change of direction in Washington, average working families will be faced with huge tax increases and a lower standard of living. In Downsizing the Federal Government, Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation.
Professional Downsizing
Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation
Example of an Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation. This is the leading Consulting firm doing downsizing in industry. The firm gets a level of level efficiency by using Consultants to do Work Measurement using time-study resulting in downsizing the companies work force. Their approach uses Short-Interval-Scheduling to control the work done by the remaining employees. They also do consolidation of functions and implementation of IT systems.
My Reform Models in contrast trains company personnel in Enterprise Lean and uses the Enterprise Lean study data from fixing the companies systems to Right-Size the company. This gets the highest efficiency possible while improving the effectiveness of company operations and empowers employees to make continuous improvements to the company’s operations. The Models also train management to use Six Sigma to manage the company’s processes. The method reforms the company’s systems while improving employee morale all at one tenth the cost of the Alexander Proudfoot approach.
The Alexander Proudfoot approach downsizes the company improving the efficiency of the company’s current processes and uses a tool called Short Interval Scheduling to rigidly control the companies employees to make sure processes are done on time. Note that the Proudfoot approach does not fix the company’s systems before right-Sizing, preventing the company from achieving the highest productivity possible. The Proudfoot approach benefits mainly the owners and its investors while ignoring employee potential for innovation.
Because of the high cost of bringing in as many as fifty Management Consultants most governments cannot afford the Proudfoot approach to downsizing. My method uses government employees as a part of Lean teams to do Work Measurement with Lean training being provided by the governments own training staff. See also the Alexander Proudfoot Versus Lawrence Rosier Approach to Downsizing.
Example of an Alexander Proudfoot Implementation
Ohio Casualty hired the consulting firm Alexander Proudfoot to develop a “process re-engineering” program to cut costs, consolidate functions, improve productivity and invest in technology. Ohio Casualty posted profit of $19.2 million during the quarter 2004, compared with $19.9 million in all of 2003.
Ohio Casualty Corp. laid off 322 workers in the first quarter and another 62 in April 2004. When the layoffs are complete, 400 positions will have been eliminated, or up to 19 percent of Ohio Casualty’s work force on Dec. 31. The staff reductions will lower the company’s 2004 operating costs by $5.5 million. The company projects savings of $19.7 million in 2005.
Ref. The Alexander Proudfoot implementation at Ohio Casualty Job cuts boost Ohio Casualty By James McNair and Mike Boyer The Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday, May 5, 2004Alexander Proudfoot Versus Lawrence Rosier Approach to Downsizing
Alexander Proudfoot is the leading consulting firm in the US and in Europe doing downsizing or as they call it “reengineering and consolidation”. Alexander Proudfoot was founded on the following two maxims:
Sell a unique, proprietary product that would produce tangible results with benefits far exceeding the cost
And only accept assignments for which the client made Alexander Proudfoot responsible for installing the program.
An announcement in the news that Proudfoot has entered into a contract with a company will cause an immediate rise in the company’s stock price on Wall Street in anticipation of increased profits. Typically after signing an agreement with a company Proudfoot while working with top management will place their consultants throughout the company. They will time-study all of the functions performed by the company on the manufacturing shop floor as well as within the company’s offices. This a very expensive operation with as many as one hundred highly paid consultants time-studying nearly every operation within the company, the entire operation taking as much as six months. The results are generally dramatic from 20% to 30% reduction in company employees. Note that downsizing is the primary objective of the Consulting firm. This must be the case to offset Proudfoot’s substantial consulting fees.
In contrast the Lawrence Rosier approach uses Enterprise Lean with Reform Models to Right-Size the company getting the highest efficiency possible while improving the effectiveness of company operations and empowers employees to make continuous improvements to the company’s operations. The Models also train management to use Six Sigma to manage the company’s processes. The method reforms the company’s systems and implements Right-Sizing while improving employee morale all at one tenth the cost.
The Proudfoot approach uses consultants to do Work Measurement of the companies processes using time-study and rigidly controls the new job assignments using Short-Interval-Scheduling a tool which guarantees that the job gets done on time.
The Rosier approach begins by following the Japanese method implementing Lean throughout the organization. The approach uses the company’s own Lean trained personnel empowered to find the “best way” to do the function (reengineering at the work place). Later the data generated by the Lean Team is used for Work Measurement which determines the correct staffing for each function. The Lean Teams also keep a daily log of all activates. The daily log provides a record of all activities and the number of times that functions are performed. This data is the input needed to make a Bottoms-up Budget for each function.
Both approaches require some consolidation due to fewer employees but here there is a difference. Proudfoot maintains the bureaucratic organization with near dictatorial power of the front line supervisor over employees a typical approach for downsizing. The Rosier method uses Enterprise Lean within a Reform Model to fix the systems first then using the Enterprise Lean Data as Work Measurement Right-Sizing is done and finally the bureaucratic organization is changed to a Team Managed organization. In the Team Management organization front line supervisors are replaced by the Team leader of each Lean Team who is elected by members of the team. The result is self managed Functional Teams.
Both approaches reduce the number layers of unnecessary management found in all bureaucratic organizations. But the Rosier approach goes further by first fixing the organization’s systems and then changing the bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization. Group Steering Teams provide management guidance for the front line Functional Teams. This results in a more innovative company empowering its employees to make continuous improvements to its processes. In contrast the Proudfoot approach leaves the company with disgruntled employees forced to maintain a tight schedule causing problems with union employees some times lasting for decades.
Other differences arise from Proudfoot’s reliance on the bureaucratic form of management it has failed to appreciate the benefits from using the entire organization for getting continuous improvement to the company’s processes provided by Lean. The important advantage in changing from a Bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization in the Rosier method is that the savings continues annually for years. But in a bureaucracy after only a few years the level of staffing could grow to where it originally was.
The Rosier approach provides the highest improvement in efficiency possible at a low cost mostly using the company’s own resources. This makes the approach affordable for small companies, state and local governments as well as the Federal Government.
The Amateur Approach to Downsizing
Donald Rumsfeld provides us with a good example of what I call the amateur top down approach. The method is a kind of knee jerk approach. You know that the organization is overstaffed and you guess at how many employees you can remove without shutting down operations. Note that this method does not provide a way of finding out where the over staffing occurs and by how many personnel. This method generally involves across the board cuts which punishes the best managed areas by cutting into their capability to provide services and has no effect on the real overstaffed areas. This is also one of the best incentives to overstaff a bureaucratic organization that exists.
Cut sharply and rapidly. Don’t wait. Whatever it is you do, the odds are overwhelming that you should have done more–rather than less–and that you should have done it sooner, rather than later. There are so many pressures in Washington, D.C. to preserve the status quo that the most frequent mistake is to make too few changes or to cut too little. Do it once. Do it well. And then let people get back to work. Don’t try to cut the dog’s tail off one inch at a time, hoping it won’t hurt as much.
Ref. 6. Donald H. Rumsfeld article “Five Ways to Downsize Government” Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication August 4, 1995 Publisher: The Heartland Institute. http://heartland.org/ .
The Secret Approach to Downsizing
I call this the secret approach because it is used secretly by major downsizing Management Consulting firms among them a firm which I was trained by, Alexander Proudfoot of Chicago. The primary method they use besides time study is Short Interval Scheduling (This is the secret that they won’t tell you). See Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation.
After time-studying both shop and office current functions a reporting system called Short Interval Scheduling is implemented. The Short Interval Scheduling reports made to management guarantees that production and services will not be interrupted and if there is a production problem management will know about it within a hours.
“Five Ways to Downsize Government” By: Donald H. Rumsfeld
Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication Date: August 4, 1995
Ref. 4. Donald H. Rumsfeld article “Five Ways to Downsize Government” Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication August 4, 1995 Publisher: The Heartland Institute. http://heartland.org/.
“As Congress grapples with the challenge of downsizing or eliminating bureaucracies that haven’t been critically reexamined for many decades, its Members would do well to consider some of the lessons learned by the businessmen and -women who made their companies more competitive in the 1990s. I have a somewhat unusual perspective on this issue, having spent roughly twenty years in the federal government and another twenty in the corporate world. Here, based on my own experience, are five guidelines for members of Congress:
Define the “Core” Business
We must ask whether a problem is truly a federal responsibility, or can it be handled better by voluntary organizations, local governments, or state governments. For the federal government, the four basic departments–State, Defense, Justice, and Treasury–have a solid basis for existence. The others were either more narrowly based, an afterthought, or both. These latter departments should be scrutinized for elimination, downsizing, reorganization, movement to state and local governments, or privatization.
Cut Sharply and Rapidly
Cut sharply and rapidly. Don’t wait. Whatever it is you do, the odds are overwhelming that you should have done more–rather than less–and that you should have done it sooner, rather than later. There are so many pressures in Washington, D.C. to preserve the status quo that the most frequent mistake is to make too few changes or to cut too little. Do it once. Do it well. And then let people get back to work. Don’t try to cut the dog’s tail off one inch at a time, hoping it won’t hurt as much.
Eliminate Bureaucracy
Congress should move swiftly to cut management and get personnel costs under control. It is guaranteed that there are more managers and more staff in the federal government than are needed. In less than seven months, Scott Paper Company eliminated 11,200 people, one-third of its workforce. The company cut 71 percent of the headquarters staff, 50 percent of management, and 20 percent of the hourly employees. If the national government is as overstaffed as was Scott Paper, some 140,000 government managers could be cut immediately, saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Reorder the Organizational Chart
Probably one-half to two-thirds of the non-central departments are no longer needed in their current form. For example, the Republican proposal to close the 93-year-old Department of Commerce seems reasonable to me. That department lacks a clear sense of mission, and it duplicates the work of dozens of other departments and agencies: a sign that taxpayers could do without it in its present form. The same likely could be said for other departments, such as Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs.
Sell Unessential Assets
Why is the federal government borrowing over $200 billion a year to cover its deficit when it is sitting on billions of dollars of assets that could and should be sold to the private sector? Some twenty years ago, I chaired the Property Review Board in the Nixon Administration, which supervised the evaluation of hundreds of federal real properties for movement to their highest and best use outside of government. The resistance in both the Executive and Legislative branches was enormous. That opportunity is still there and, given the current budget situation, must be seized.
As Congress goes about the business of putting meat on the bones of the balanced budget plan passed earlier this year, it will have to make tough decisions. I recognize the difficulty of that task, having once served in the House. But I’ve learned that decisions made every day in the corporate world are sometimes even more difficult because the very survival of a company can be at stake.
The choices to be made affect real people with careers, mortgages to pay, and families to raise. But Congress oversees an enterprise facing bankruptcy, and the consequences of not acting now, swiftly and firmly, will be devastating for a far greater number of people. The right decisions made now, however tough, will help restore the long-term health of the government, our economy, and our country.
Donald H. Rumsfeld has served as a member of Congress, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, chief of staff to President Ford, and, from 1975 to 1977, Secretary of Defense. Between 1977 and 1985 he was CEO of G.D. Searle, and from 1990 to 1993 he was Chairman and CEO of General Instrument Corporation.”
Comments by the Author
My readers will note that this article was written before 9-11 and the mid-east wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Without getting into what has happened in the Bush Administration in the article Rumsfeld does give amateur advice that is typical among CEO’s in industry. His approach to determining what really needs to be done, the elimination of redundant organizations is a necessary first step and is commendable. However some may disagree with his Departmental choices for elimination. I agree with Rumsfeld that his advice to “Cut Sharply and Rapidly” and “eliminate Bureaucracy” will bring significant savings to the government but the real question becomes how much do you cut and still keep the services that you want. By the elimination of bureaucracy he is referring to cutting out levels of management and not the complete elimination of the bureaucratic organization. Apparently he was unfamiliar with Team Management as a replacement for bureaucracy.
What you have here is the typical top-down approach to downsizing but I prefer the bottom-up approach through Work Measurement. The advantage is that while you may get some efficiency in government from the top-down approach you will be able to eliminate all the inefficient activities through the bottom-up approach. A second problem is that when using the Rumsfeld approach, eliminating a portion of the bureaucracy, it is not a permanent reduction in staff and it is only a matter of time before the remaining bureaucracy has regained back its staffing level. I propose that the best way of downsizing is in using Lean Teams made up of trained government employees to study government process flows and determine the best way of doing each process in government. You should always fix the systems first. The Rumsfeld approach makes no effort to fix the organization’s systems. The Lean Team study data can then be used for determining the exact staffing required called Right-Sizing and is more precise than Rumsfeld’s downsizing which guesses at the number of employees which can be laid off before vital services are affected.
A significant difference also occurs when reducing staff during budget cuts. The top down method tends to lay-off those at the bottom usually the most recently employed. The Lean Team Right-Sizing reform method keeps in tact those employees that are actually doing the work eliminating those that are redundant including a significant number of management staff. In all cases I recommend using the Lean Team method.
Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute
A book by Chris Edwards gives his opinion of what federal programs to downsize and is sponsored by the Cato Institute. Ref. 7.Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato article: Downsizing the Federal Government.
My website is dedicated to a “method” of Right-Sizing to get the highest efficiency with the most effectiveness possible through my Reform Models and leaves what programs to cut to government leaders and authors such as Chris Edwards. I recommend that programs to be cut be selected before implementing my Government Reform Models in the remaining portions of government.
The Consolidation Model provides the best means for consolidation of various agencies that have duplicated responsibility for some government function. Using Enterprise Lean trained personnel representing each agency a team is formed to find the “best way” to consolidate the agencies. The objective is provide for a smooth transition by using Work Measurement to know what the proper staffing should be and by changing the new organization into a Team Managed
From Downsizing the Federal Government
By Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato Institute
The federal government is running massive budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Without a change of direction in Washington, average working families will be faced with huge tax increases and a lower standard of living. In Downsizing the Federal Government, Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation.
Professional Downsizing
Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation
Example of an Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation. This is the leading Consulting firm doing downsizing in industry. The firm gets a level of level efficiency by using Consultants to do Work Measurement using time-study resulting in downsizing the companies work force. Their approach uses Short-Interval-Scheduling to control the work done by the remaining employees. They also do consolidation of functions and implementation of IT systems.
My Reform Models in contrast trains company personnel in Enterprise Lean and uses the Enterprise Lean study data from fixing the companies systems to Right-Size the company. This gets the highest efficiency possible while improving the effectiveness of company operations and empowers employees to make continuous improvements to the company’s operations. The Models also train management to use Six Sigma to manage the company’s processes. The method reforms the company’s systems while improving employee morale all at one tenth the cost of the Alexander Proudfoot approach.
The Alexander Proudfoot approach downsizes the company improving the efficiency of the company’s current processes and uses a tool called Short Interval Scheduling to rigidly control the companies employees to make sure processes are done on time. Note that the Proudfoot approach does not fix the company’s systems before right-Sizing, preventing the company from achieving the highest productivity possible. The Proudfoot approach benefits mainly the owners and its investors while ignoring employee potential for innovation.
Because of the high cost of bringing in as many as fifty Management Consultants most governments cannot afford the Proudfoot approach to downsizing. My method uses government employees as a part of Lean teams to do Work Measurement with Lean training being provided by the governments own training staff. See also the Alexander Proudfoot Versus Lawrence Rosier Approach to Downsizing.
Example of an Alexander Proudfoot Implementation
Ohio Casualty hired the consulting firm Alexander Proudfoot to develop a “process re-engineering” program to cut costs, consolidate functions, improve productivity and invest in technology. Ohio Casualty posted profit of $19.2 million during the quarter 2004, compared with $19.9 million in all of 2003.
Ohio Casualty Corp. laid off 322 workers in the first quarter and another 62 in April 2004. When the layoffs are complete, 400 positions will have been eliminated, or up to 19 percent of Ohio Casualty’s work force on Dec. 31. The staff reductions will lower the company’s 2004 operating costs by $5.5 million. The company projects savings of $19.7 million in 2005.
Ref. The Alexander Proudfoot implementation at Ohio Casualty Job cuts boost Ohio Casualty By James McNair and Mike Boyer The Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday, May 5, 2004Alexander Proudfoot Versus Lawrence Rosier Approach to Downsizing
Alexander Proudfoot is the leading consulting firm in the US and in Europe doing downsizing or as they call it “reengineering and consolidation”. Alexander Proudfoot was founded on the following two maxims:
Sell a unique, proprietary product that would produce tangible results with benefits far exceeding the cost
And only accept assignments for which the client made Alexander Proudfoot responsible for installing the program.
An announcement in the news that Proudfoot has entered into a contract with a company will cause an immediate rise in the company’s stock price on Wall Street in anticipation of increased profits. Typically after signing an agreement with a company Proudfoot while working with top management will place their consultants throughout the company. They will time-study all of the functions performed by the company on the manufacturing shop floor as well as within the company’s offices. This a very expensive operation with as many as one hundred highly paid consultants time-studying nearly every operation within the company, the entire operation taking as much as six months. The results are generally dramatic from 20% to 30% reduction in company employees. Note that downsizing is the primary objective of the Consulting firm. This must be the case to offset Proudfoot’s substantial consulting fees.
In contrast the Lawrence Rosier approach uses Enterprise Lean with Reform Models to Right-Size the company getting the highest efficiency possible while improving the effectiveness of company operations and empowers employees to make continuous improvements to the company’s operations. The Models also train management to use Six Sigma to manage the company’s processes. The method reforms the company’s systems and implements Right-Sizing while improving employee morale all at one tenth the cost.
The Proudfoot approach uses consultants to do Work Measurement of the companies processes using time-study and rigidly controls the new job assignments using Short-Interval-Scheduling a tool which guarantees that the job gets done on time.
The Rosier approach begins by following the Japanese method implementing Lean throughout the organization. The approach uses the company’s own Lean trained personnel empowered to find the “best way” to do the function (reengineering at the work place). Later the data generated by the Lean Team is used for Work Measurement which determines the correct staffing for each function. The Lean Teams also keep a daily log of all activates. The daily log provides a record of all activities and the number of times that functions are performed. This data is the input needed to make a Bottoms-up Budget for each function.
Both approaches require some consolidation due to fewer employees but here there is a difference. Proudfoot maintains the bureaucratic organization with near dictatorial power of the front line supervisor over employees a typical approach for downsizing. The Rosier method uses Enterprise Lean within a Reform Model to fix the systems first then using the Enterprise Lean Data as Work Measurement Right-Sizing is done and finally the bureaucratic organization is changed to a Team Managed organization. In the Team Management organization front line supervisors are replaced by the Team leader of each Lean Team who is elected by members of the team. The result is self managed Functional Teams.
Both approaches reduce the number layers of unnecessary management found in all bureaucratic organizations. But the Rosier approach goes further by first fixing the organization’s systems and then changing the bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization. Group Steering Teams provide management guidance for the front line Functional Teams. This results in a more innovative company empowering its employees to make continuous improvements to its processes. In contrast the Proudfoot approach leaves the company with disgruntled employees forced to maintain a tight schedule causing problems with union employees some times lasting for decades.
Other differences arise from Proudfoot’s reliance on the bureaucratic form of management it has failed to appreciate the benefits from using the entire organization for getting continuous improvement to the company’s processes provided by Lean. The important advantage in changing from a Bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization in the Rosier method is that the savings continues annually for years. But in a bureaucracy after only a few years the level of staffing could grow to where it originally was.
The Rosier approach provides the highest improvement in efficiency possible at a low cost mostly using the company’s own resources. This makes the approach affordable for small companies, state and local governments as well as the Federal Government.
The Amateur Approach to Downsizing
Donald Rumsfeld provides us with a good example of what I call the amateur top down approach. The method is a kind of knee jerk approach. You know that the organization is overstaffed and you guess at how many employees you can remove without shutting down operations. Note that this method does not provide a way of finding out where the over staffing occurs and by how many personnel. This method generally involves across the board cuts which punishes the best managed areas by cutting into their capability to provide services and has no effect on the real overstaffed areas. This is also one of the best incentives to overstaff a bureaucratic organization that exists.
Cut sharply and rapidly. Don’t wait. Whatever it is you do, the odds are overwhelming that you should have done more–rather than less–and that you should have done it sooner, rather than later. There are so many pressures in Washington, D.C. to preserve the status quo that the most frequent mistake is to make too few changes or to cut too little. Do it once. Do it well. And then let people get back to work. Don’t try to cut the dog’s tail off one inch at a time, hoping it won’t hurt as much.
Ref. 6. Donald H. Rumsfeld article “Five Ways to Downsize Government” Published In: Heartland Perspectives Publication August 4, 1995 Publisher: The Heartland Institute. http://heartland.org/ .
The Secret Approach to Downsizing
I call this the secret approach because it is used secretly by major downsizing Management Consulting firms among them a firm which I was trained by, Alexander Proudfoot of Chicago. The primary method they use besides time study is Short Interval Scheduling (This is the secret that they won’t tell you). See Alexander Proudfoot Management Consultant Implementation.
After time-studying both shop and office current functions a reporting system called Short Interval Scheduling is implemented. The Short Interval Scheduling reports made to management guarantees that production and services will not be interrupted and if there is a production problem management will know about it within a hours.
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