The importance of eliminating waste cannot be overemphasised. Countless studies have shown that, with good and sound processes relating to management of time and resources, one finds that meagre resources can be extended to produce outstanding results. In other words, organisations and individuals can achieve more with less.
The Lagos State Civil Service has come a long way in reducing waste while increasing productivity. This is partly the result of the extensive investments in knowledge and skills by the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. The ultimate objective is to identify and codify the methods, means, and strategies for ensuring that the state Civil Service is positioned to do more with less.
McKinsey & Company in an article states: “Governments around the world want to deliver better education, better health care, better pensions, and better transportation services. They know that impatient electorates expect to see change, and fast. But the funds required to meet such expectations are enormous—particularly in the many developed economies where populations are aging and the public sector’s productivity hasn’t kept pace with that of the private sector. The need to get value for money from governments at all levels is therefore under the spotlight as never before. But cost-cutting programmes that seek savings of 1 to 3 percent a year will not be enough and in some cases, may even weaken the quality of service.”
The article further stated: “In order to address the problem, public-sector leaders are looking with growing interest at ‘lean’ techniques long used in private industry. From the repair of military vehicles to the processing of income tax returns, from surgery to urban planning, lean is showing that it cannot only improve public services but also transform them for the better. Crucially for the public sector, a lean approach breaks with the prevailing view that there has to be a trade-off between the quality of public services and the cost of providing them.”
Lean management and production techniques have their roots in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, the car manufacturer, Toyota, has been singled out as demonstrating the profitability of the techniques over the years. This is why, according to the article cited, many “businesses have followed Toyota’s lead and undergone a lean transformation. A major European telecommunications company, for example, successfully applied lean techniques to a problem that was leading many of its customers to switch to competitors: the repair of faulty telephone lines. The company found that its call centre operators, diagnostics experts, and repair technicians operated as though they actually worked for rival employers. As a result, it took an average of 19 hours to repair a line. Using lean principles, the company realigned its organization and invested in the development of team leaders. In the first few months of its pilot project, productivity increased by 40 percent and recurring failures fell by 50 percent. The programme was then rolled out across the company’s national network, where it achieved similar success. Likewise, a major European bank used lean techniques to reduce the processing time for mortgage applications to five days, from 35 days. Because fewer applicants dropped out of the process, the bank’s revenues grew by five percent even as processing costs fell by 35 percent.
The question, of course, is whether any of this is relevant to the public sector? As noted, it is not surprising that the concept and language of lean, rooted as they are in manufacturing, spark cynicism among many civil servants. Some feel that their priority should be matters of policy, not operations; others resent the notion that they are somehow part of a production line. Moreover, without the incentive of the profit motive, these government managers may believe they have neither a reason nor the levers to pursue a lean approach.
Yet practical experience suggests that they can. A study has shown that in a UK government office processing large volumes of standard documents, lean techniques achieved double-digit productivity gains in the number of documents processed per hour and improved customer service by slashing lead times to fewer than 12 days, from about 40, thus eliminating backlogs. The proportion of documents processed correctly the first time increased by roughly 30 percent; lead times to process incoming mail decreased to 2 days, from 15 days; and the staff occasionally attains the nirvana of an unprecedented zero backlog.
Also, in a UK Military Armoured-Vehicle Repair Shop, a lean transformation generated a 44 percent increase in the availability of equipment, a 16 percent reduction in turnaround times, and a more than 40 percent increase in “right the first time” production. This achievement puts about 40 more vehicles into operation at any one time. Moreover, the repair shop progressed from constantly missing its vehicle delivery deadlines to never missing them.
Now, I will be the first to acknowledge that, as has been well documented, persuading people to embark on the lean journey, where the last stop may be their own removal or reassignment, is not easy. To succeed, public-sector organizations must find a way to align their growth strategy—providing new and better services at limited cost—with a regard for the interests of their workers. Although lean programmes may cut the number of public-sector jobs over time, the goal is to make the remaining ones more rewarding. Incentives come from the prospect of more meaningful work, potentially with room for greater autonomy or a chance to develop new skills.
For Governor Ambode, if the State Civil Service is able to perfect the art of lean management and operations, the service will become able to eliminate the so-called “Three Sources of Loss,” which are waste, variability, and inflexibility.
A lean operational system will also ensure that the State Civil Service creates and maintains the beneficial ability to improve itself constantly by bringing problems to the surface and resolving them. In this area, the public sector often finds itself in a weaker starting position when compared to private sector entities, with gaps in skills and entrenched mind-sets. The adoption of a lean operational system will help the state adopt a performance culture. This is because, when improving long-term performance is the goal, changing the process or the operating system will not suffice. The organization’s culture must also change. Undoubtedly, some of these changes will be wrenching. A lean process, for example, requires a performance-tracking system that breaks down top-level objectives into clear, measurable targets that workers at every level must understand, accept, and meet. When performance isn’t up to the standard, action is required.
Tackling problems quickly and holding colleagues accountable for poor performance raises efficiency as well as morale. A lean process also tends to address the problem of sticky resources, prompting organizations to allocate them to shifting priorities more flexibly. The state finds that there is much to gain from embracing a lean operational model in its Civil Service.
- Dr. Benson is commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions.
