Minnesota county adopts Lean, Kaizen strategies to improve government efficiency

Continuous improvement efforts have traditionally been viewed as strictly a business strategy, but the truth is many government agencies and institutions are adopting similar programs for their fiscal and operational demands.

Anoka County, Minnesota, is one such example, as the district recently created a new position devoted to improving government and organizational efficiency. Mike Roff, the man who was appointed to the position, will establish both Lean and Kaizen strategies to develop training programs for employees.

“The initiatives are designed to improve how we do our work and make us more efficient,” Roff told ABC Newspapers.

The aim of the Lean program will be to make full use of customer value while also limiting waste and creating more value for customers at the expense of fewer resources. The Kaizen program, on the other hand, will focus more so on the optimization of various business tasks.

“Kaizen, one facet of the Lean process, aims to eliminate waste by improving standardized activities and processes,” reports Peter Bodley for the source, adding that the Kaizen process has already been used by the Anoka County government in other public projects.