I hadn't until a recent council meeting where a presentation was given by a group of Chula Vista employees from Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology.
Stay with me here - because I promise it gets interesting.
Both phrases come from the Japanese word "Kaizen" - meaning improvement for the better. It's a core belief that there is no end point for improvement. Improvement is continual and a daily process that eliminates waste, increases efficiency and is all-inclusive.
Okay, here is where it gets good.
BF Goodrich has partnered with Chula Vista to bring this training to city employees.
The Chula Vista project I heard about entailed employees' flexible spending accounts, WageWorks (a subcontractor to administer accounts), and city departments involved in ensuring the subcontractor had the current information they needed.
The interesting part is what happened to an overtly bureaucratic process when Kaizen principles were applied.
Below is a picture of what the process looked like before and after. Each sticky note represents a step in the process.
The picture really says it all!
Sixty-one steps were streamlined into twenty-four steps. And processes in general improved up to 100%. For full presentation on project, click here.
For you and I, the taxpayer, this represents time saved -- which equates to money saved.
The economic environment has forced Chula Vista to cut services to the bone, forcing the city to find ways to do more with less.
Kudos to Chula Vista for allowing employees to apply Kaizen principles to their work. The results are undeniably amazing, and I hope that more departments will work together to revisit processes and strive towards continuous improvement.
And a big THANK YOU to BF Goodrich for being great community partners and sharing this training!
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