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Department of Human Services

Case Study - Human Services

Create a lasting, results-focused performance foundation for a large state social services agency.

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Project Highlights

  1. Office Kaizen
  2. Employee Engagement
  3. Leadership Training

Clients Perspective:

"We want to make a difference because we know the more Lean we are in the office setting, the more Oregonians we can help."

Situation:

The State of Oregon's Department of Human Services (DHS) / Oregon Health Authority (OHA) had reaped positive results with Lean Daily Management System® (LDMS®) since their initial pilot project in 2007. It recognized LDMS' role in creating a high performance workplace. For this project, the agency sought to bolster management modeling of LDMS and broaden its roll out. They also intended to reinforce the transformation through practical workgroup metrics instilled throughout a workforce of nearly 11,000.

Approach:

  • Established baseline measures by profiling each division for LDMS implementation results to-date (progress vs. goals)
  • Compiled actionable improvement recommendations for needed training, coaching and applied implementation support to close gaps
  • Worked directly with Managers, LDMS Coaches and DHS / OHA functional teams to design custom divisional LDMS implementation
  • Led Managers' LDMS Workshops tailored for social services to transfer tools, ability and confidence to coach their own workgroups in continuous improvement methods
  • Led implementation workshops that included LDMS, 20 Keys®, team roles and responsibilities, change management and performance metric awareness in the dimensions of driving and improving results in these categories:
-Costs -- Productivity / Money Saved
-Service -- Cycle-time Reduction
-Quality -- Accuracy Delivered / Inaccuracy Avoided
-People -- Stakeholder / Individual / Team Satisfaction
  • Delivered hands-on coaching for 10 DHS / OHA Train-the-Trainers (TTTs). TTTs worked side-by-side with us co-facilitating LDMS implementation. In this applied learning lab, TTTs quickly became able to train and implement LDMS in workgroups settings while we coached them
  • Select TTTs learned delivery of the Managers' Workshop in order to teach other managers how to coach and sustain LDMS in their own workgroups

Results:

Performance was increased by eliminating non-value added activities, reducing lead time in processes, and improving response time to the agency's clients and legislative requests.

Training and implementation results:
  1. 443 Managers / leaders trained
  2. 10 Train-the-Trainers activated
  3. 14 workgroups fully functional in LDMS
  4. 80 other workgroups starting LDMS (est.)
Workgroup engagement results:
  1. Held daily Huddles to identify performance problems, quality issues and plan daily work
  2. Developed / used a Primary Visual Display board to track workgroup metrics they could influence and control. Ex: Attendance, Service, Cost, Quality and People
  3. Developed and put in place a Kaizen Action Sheet system for idea implementation
  4. Completed a DHS / OHA 20 Keys® with goals and action plans identified for the next quarter

Want to find out more about Kaufman Global's approach and the critical success factors in a project like as this? Contact us.