SAO’s Center for Government Innovation offers Lean services at no cost to Washington governments. Our Lean specialists work directly with your team—live and in person at a time and place convenient for you—to find where work gets delayed and help you fix it. Watch this short video to learn more about the process.
Help your work processes be more efficient
Your government runs on processes, which can sometimes break. Consider permitting backlogs; payroll errors; purchasing requests that take three times longer than they should. Most government workflows have at least one process that everyone knows is broken – they just haven’t had the time or support to fix it.
Lean is a method for making those processes work better. Applying the Lean Methodology also:
Gives you time back
The goal isn’t a binder full of new procedures. It’s your staff spending less time on steps that don’t add value, and more time on the work that actually matters to your community. After applying Lean Methodology, most governments see real changes within a few weeks.
Works across your whole government
We’ve applied Lean in finance offices, health districts, public libraries, public works departments and more. If there’s a process involved, there’s a good chance Lean can improve it.
Isn't a one-time fix
One of the things Washington governments tell us after going through a Lean engagement with SAO is that they start seeing places to improve everywhere. The Lean method gives your team a shared approach to keep improving on your own, not just during the engagement.
The PDCA Cycle
P - Plan: Find the problem and design a solution
D - Do: Test your solution on a small scale
C - Check: Measure results against your goal
A - Adjust: Standardize what works; improve what doesn't.
Customize your Lean experience
There’s no standard package. Some governments come to us having never heard of Lean. Others have done some training and want to go deeper. We start by asking what’s not working, then build from there.
- Training and facilitation: Good starting point if your team is new to process improvement. We walk you through the basics and facilitate your first project.
- In-depth Lean coaching: For governments that've done Lean work and want to build a stronger internal culture around it.
- On-site: We come to you. Most engagements happen at your government with your team in the room.
- Virtual/hybrid: Works well for distributed teams or when having in-person gatherings isn't possible.
- Any department, any process: Finance, human resources (HR), public works, licensing, courts, health – if it has a process, we can help.
Proven results
Clover Park School District and Bellingham School District HR, asked for help to create effective and efficient recruitment processes.
The City of Monroe worked with SAO to make its Accounts Payable process more efficient and improve department communication.
This Lean process improvement case study examines how the city of Ridgefield improved its billing process.
Visit our Lean Success Stories playlist on YouTube for more!
Lean Services tools in SAO’s Resource Library
Our Lean resources help local governments make work processes more effective and sustainable to improve efficiency, quality and customer service.
Ready to get started?
Contact SAO’s Center for Government Innovation to learn more about our Lean services and how we can customize an engagement to meet your government’s needs. Reach us directly by emailing Center@sao.wa.gov, calling (564) 999-0818 or clicking below.