The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently made a presentation at a project manager meeting that showed how the public agency has provided a model for implementing process improvement in an organization.
During the virtual roundtable event, CDOT officials talked about how the agency puts the focus on “the people side of change.” The agency starts with training employees to develop strong process improvement schools, empowering them to become change agents within their area of the department. Education in Lean Six Sigma plays a big role in this area.
The CDOT motto incorporates the agency’s approach: “Everyone, every day, improving every process and every product, to benefit every customer.”
Gary Vansuch, CDOT Director of Process Improvement, and Kailyn Haskovec, CDOT Process Improvement and Change Management Specialist, spoke at the roundtable event. They focused on what they called “Type 2” projects. These projects change how employees do tasks as opposed to Type 1 projects, which require detailed planning and involve repetitive production processes.
They said three factors prove most important for successful change in Type 2 projects: sponsorship, leadership by example and coaching and mentoring.
Examples of CDOT Lean Projects
The CDOT is far from alone in putting Lean Six Sigma and continuous process improvement in place to provide more efficient and effective services to taxpayers. Government leaders across the country have done the same. Examples include King County in Washington, Brevard County in Florida and the state of Nebraska.
In areas where tax revenue has dropped in many places, Lean practices have helped government entities maintain services on smaller budgets. CDOT offers examples of where using Lean has helped the agency make successful changes. They include the following.
Analyzing Hydraulic Environments
In the past, CDOT has used one-dimensional mapping to analyze hydraulic environments. At the suggestion of engineers on staff, they developed a two-dimensional model that is more detailed and comprehensive. One major benefit is that it reduces the number of assumptions that engineers must make, therefore reducing the number of errors in projects. They also cut the cost of a $4 million project in half by simply doing an analysis of how water interacted with a bridge, which resulted in them hanging the materials used in the bridge.
Better Roadside Maintenance
Another employee, empowered to suggest changes by the process set up by CDOT, developed a T-post puller. The CDOT must do the repairs when a driver leaves the roadway and hits a fence, something that happens more often in the wintertime because of snow. An employee created an innovative T-post puller to help remove fence posts faster and safer from the damaged areas.
Fuel PIN
This idea came from a manager, State Fuels Coordinator Bill Hougland. He developed a system that eliminated paperwork receipts from fuel purchases and replaced it with a system in which each employee has a personal identification number (PIN). The new system has protected the CDOC against theft (which has happened in the past) and saves $30,000 a year just in the printing of paperwork. The electronic information also helps CDOT react quicker to maintenance requests.
Empowering Employees
All the above ideas happened because CDOT encourages employees to come up with innovative solutions to any issues they have in their department. Even small changes can lead to big improvements.
They encourage and accept these ideas through what is called the Lean Everyday Ideas program. The program involves a person or team of people identifying a problem, developing a solution, putting it into place and then letting others know how they do it so they can “borrow” the solution.
The program has proven successful, saving the state millions of dollars through a variety of improvements. The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government named the program as a Top 25 Innovation in American Government in 2018.
