Effecting change in government is extremely difficult…and often very slow. But, a number of government entities have embraced an innovative program that is truly a catalyst for change.
The program – Six Sigma – had its roots in the private sector and its implementation resulted in streamlining business processes, identifying problematic issues and finding ways to improve or eliminate them.
Some government entities in Texas have also incorporated Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma and the results are significant. Using the program, public employees work together to analyze data, identify problems and inefficiencies and use a set of analytical tools and methodologies to improve processes and eliminate waste.
The latest Six Sigma success story in Texas comes from the city of El Paso. Officials in the city’s IT department this week went before the city council to announce that their Six Sigma efforts toward improvements in the city’s phone service processes would result in a savings of $570,000 for FY 2015-2016.
Baffled by an “out of control” phone system with increasing costs and that eventually went over budget, analysis by the Six Sigma team showed that there was no formal process for requesting phone services – from connect to disconnect. The team set out to simplify the process and reduce the phone service costs by 5 percent.
Four other projects have been undertaken by the city of El Paso since the first of the year, resulting in more than $704,000 in costs avoided and more than 28,000 work hours saved. The city has 20 other projects in the pipeline. And, team members are learning new leadership, decision-making, supervision, communication, project management and succession-building skills.
El Paso is not the only government entity in Texas that has been successful in using Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Office of Eligibility Services used a variation of the programs to develop a business process redesign that did more than just save time and money. The offices involved in this pilot program recorded a 49 percent reduction in overtime and a 62 percent decline in the number of days it takes to process an application. The business process redesign began with an examination of processes, analysis of how work was getting done, how many duplicate “touches” there were by various employees as applications were entered into the system and how long it took before the application reached an eligibility worker. Reducing time gaps between each step was integral to the success of the redesign.
The result was a “team blueprint” created by front-line Eligibility Office staff. The pilot was so successful that the new process is being rolled out to eligibility offices statewide. The team says this experience has them eager to work on other business processes.
The changes will help HHSC “prepare for the inevitable,” say agency officials. They know that factors such as a growing population, the likelihood of future natural disasters and increases in eligibility for health and human services assistance as a result of the Affordable Care Act will impact workloads at the agency. The agency must be more efficient so it can absorb those types of changes that increase workloads.
Last year, the city of Tyler announced it had saved more than $5 million and nearly 37,000 work hours as a result of its Lean Six Sigma program. At that time, more than 125 projects were either completed or in the works. The city of Irving, the first city in the state to adopt the Lean Six Sigma program, saved more than $74 million and 50,000 hours in work productivity through its program.
As important as the cost and time savings being created by Six Sigma teams are to government entities, officials say their teams are making huge impacts through teamwork. Teams of highly skilled, qualified and dedicated employees are affecting positive change and that is a very good thing. That’s the type of culture change every Texan can embrace.
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