Public Sector Kaizen

We bring the benefits of kaizen and Lean Enterprise to elements of the Public Sector.  The application of Lean Thinking in this sector is consistent with the nature of work carried out there.  Public service involves commitment, hard work, and a sense of duty.  It is founded on the related ideas that society gains from our unselfish efforts and that we, as individuals, benefit from an improved society. 

Lean, as practiced in the leading organizations like Toyota, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and a number of others, builds on these and other characteristics.  The principles and techniques of Lean harness the commitment of employees, their work ethic, and their sense of responsibility to offer the potential of operational excellence.  Likewise, the stunning process improvements demonstrated by Lean organizations are dependent upon a workforce devoted to the success of these agencies.  Unfortunately, the value of this set of highly effective management tools is not well known throughout the sector.  We intend to change that.

Why do we want to help public servants apply Lean in their sector?

We are interested in more than the financial rewards of teaching people how to do kaizen and apply Lean principles to their work.  When we serve as instructors and consultants committed to improving the performance of the companies and agencies in the private sector and in healthcare the value we can bring through kaizen is multiplied.  We believe in the philosophy of continuous improvement as practiced in martial arts – teacher or guide devoted to the needs of the student and unending improvement.  We are interested in strengthening values, teaching and honing skills, and sharing new knowledge with each of our partners.  We feel the same way about the Public Sector.

We want to help dedicated public servants increase the value of the work they perform and the services they provide.  Our goal is to help them accomplish more and more with the limited resources they receive.  We want to see them commit to a path of continuous improvement that will increase their value to society.

Education & Empowerment

Our focus is teaching people to eliminate waste and increase the value of the services and products they provide.  Public servants have customers too and their needs and desires represent the starting point.  We teach our clients to see value of the services through their customers’ eyes and help them pull their services and products through the processes that create value, identifying and removing waste at every step.  Often these are areas where established processes were optimized without consideration for the entire value stream, localizing the impact of improvements and limiting the ultimate satisfaction of those who depend on critical public sector resources. 

Going to the “gemba” (the place where work is done) is also essential to real improvement in this sector.  Gemba is more than just our name, it is a way of learning about real conditions in the workplace and it is essential to getting to the root cause of the problems that affect operation and limit value.

Contact us to learn more about how we can bring kaizen to your public service organization.