Kenosha, Wisconsin’s Public Safety and Welfare Committee voted unanimously to approve a project to implement the Six Sigma process for restructuring city permitting. The purpose of the Six Sigma plan is to help reduce waste and increase the speed by which city permits are approved or denied.
Six Sigma is a set of principles developed by Motorola as a way to make its processes more efficient. The methodology’s goal is to improve the rate of production by finding and eliminating the causes of errors and minimizing inconsistency.
“It’s a proven technique,” said Kenosha alderman Kurt Wicklund, who is trained in Six Sigma. “This is exactly what we want to do before investing in any kind of enterprise software and move from a paperless permit system.”
“This results in [a] simpler, faster and less costly government,” said Alderman Bob Johnson, the project’s creator.
Johnson’s solution would call for a review of the city’s permitting process and create an online “one-stop” access point for permit applications and information.
Kenosha citizens are hoping the Six Sigma process makes permitting easier and less time consuming.
Alderman Pat Juliana said that the end goal should be improving the burdensome permitting process to “address the problems the business community is facing,” per the Kenosha News.
Johnson stated that the process has already been implemented on state-wide systems – 26 states – and in local government, and has been effective in both areas.
“Using the technique will not be costly or result in staff reductions at city hall,” Johnson said. “It would not require the hiring of a consultant to implement,” he added.
Additionally, Johnson said that the city could see savings of $1.75 million a year if Six Sigma is executed.
Alderman Jack Rose said that the program should be applied gradually to see what changes are possible.
“If we can set up some type of pilot program in consort with the people working in it now … and see how it works, that’s what I’m in favor [of],” Rose said.
“If you can cook a microwaveable TV dinner, you can execute Six Sigma,” Johnson said. “We have highly able directors and staff and they can achieve this. This will free up time to do mission-critical work.”
