I came across this page from Melbourne's government web site:
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ABOUTCOUNCIL/PLANSANDPUBLICATIONS/ANNUALREPORT/2010/ABOUT/COMMLEAN/Pages/LeanThinking.aspx
While I believe it is good that the city has focused some efforts on lean thinking, government traditionally do not spent much time following through. Even here you can see that the last post goes back two years. Lean is a continuous improvement path and journey that will never end.
The other issue I see is that they very much focused on the Senior leadership and management, but without including everyone in the business and creating a Lean Culture, the project is doomed to fail. Both Labour and Liberal governments, both local and federal, their leaders Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard should take some time to take a closer look at how lean can help the government, opposition and most of all Australia as a whole.
I would welcome the opportunity to spend some time with our political leaders to highlight how Lean has helped thousands of businesses in Australia. Many of our clients in the manufacturing industry are successful and continue to grow throughout these tough times. Lean principles apply to all industries, but we must create a lean culture where the applications can blossom. If you would like to challenge these thoughts, please drop me a line at roland.weber@chaseperformance.com or call me on 1300 880 338. I am always happy to consider other views as part of our continuous Lean and Learning/Improvement journey.
Lean Thinking
Lean Thinking is an improvement system which focuses on improving the quality, timeliness and cost of services we deliver from the perspective of the customer. The system provides a structure, techniques and tools for carrying out improvements. Its ultimate goal is to deliver increased satisfaction for our customers and staff. The City of Melbourne has been a pioneer in local government in Australia, fully embracing Lean Thinking as the continuous improvement model.
Lean Thinking within the City of Melbourne began in 2009, focussing on 10 organisational processes, incorporating many areas of the business including parking meters, child care, council reports and the recruitment process. One example of these improvements was the processing of construction zone permit applications. Prior to the application of Lean Thinking principles, the City of Melbourne took months to go through all the processes necessary to issue these permits. After applying Lean Thinking, the time has been reduced to around a fortnight. This is not only a major improvement for customers applying for permits, but also for drivers needing parking spaces, as the spaces are reinstated much earlier. In our childcare centres, the Lean Thinking project identified 60 per cent of payments were overdue at any one time. A more customer friendly online process has increased timely payments and freed staff from administration work to focus on more time on the children.
In 2009–10, the City of Melbourne Lean Thinking program has been coordinated by a dedicated team who provide guidance and support to managers. Our aim is to increase customer and staff satisfaction with improved services and processes, increase first time quality and timeliness, reduce costs and reduce the environmental impact. All process improvements must be measured against these outcomes.
In 2010–11, the City of Melbourne will continue to apply Lean Thinking across the organisation. Our aim is to transform our organisational culture such that Lean Thinking is the way things are done every day. Lean Thinking will be prevalent across the organisation, evidenced by supportive leaders who work with their teams to solve problems through the application of lean techniques. Because Lean Thinking focuses on processes from beginning to end we are also working with our external partners to ensure seamless service delivery for the benefit of our customers.
