http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com THE ONLY COMPREHENSIVE GOVERNMENT REFORM WEBSITE Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:33:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Three states Arizona, Michigan and Nevada each have high unemployment. But the economic situation in Michigan differs greatly from that of Arizona and Nevada. Michigan’s economy has strengths not shared by Arizona and Nevada. It has a strong manufacturing base with scientists, researchers and engineers, a foundation that conceivably could be ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/29/article-168-stabilizing-state-economies-by-creating-and-protecting-jobs/ An examination of the situation of inner city residents yields only one positive thing all many residents have is free time along with an enormous desire to change their current prospects. What they don’t have is nearly everything else. The approach I recommend for rebuilding inner cities is ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/22/article-167-ideas-for-rebuilding-inner-cities/ In your articles you describe your method of determining the required staffing for a particular government function. But this appears to be difficult because unlike making widgets in industry most government functions are service functions and vary considerable in the time required to do the function. How ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/21/reader-question-24-how-do-you-handle-variations-in-process-times/ Stateline’s excellent November 12, 2009 article: “Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril” is a study comparing and rating states relative to California’s fiscal problems on their ability to recover from the recession. From this article I chose to look at the size of the budget gap as a % ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/13/article-166-beyond-california-states-in-fiscal-peril/ There is much to be gained by changing the way state legislatures do business. The following are some ideas for change. Eliminating the Practice of Throwing Money at Problems It’s a sad fact that legislatures in many states and the federal government still solve problems by throwing money at the likely ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/11/article-165-reform-of-government-legislative-practices/ Minnesota’s Lean approach to providing better public service was begun in 2008 and has grown into the organization of Lean Teams to study high level cross functional process flows and functional process flows using Lean tools at the work place. Minnesota is well ahead of most states in the ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/11/02/article-164-minnesota-could-lead-the-nation-in-efficient-government/ From New York Times By Danny Hakim Published: October 15, 2009. ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson proposed billions of dollars in spending cuts on Thursday and raised alarms about New York’s financial health as the state faces a deficit of nearly $50 billion over the next three and a half ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/29/p207/ I feel that I have some responsibility for trying to bring Virginia’s State Government back on track. One should not make such a bold statement as I have done in my “Article 150. The Biggest Boondoggle Ever in State Information Technology without pointing out what the state needs to ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/25/article-162-bringing-virginias-state-government-back-on-track/ The nation loves its darling IBM but the facts are that IBM costs this nation hundreds of $billions through its proprietary obsolete software. This is perpetuated by its domination of the Information Technology market in government and in business and controlled by its IT managers. How did this Happen? This ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/21/article-161-ibm-the-most-costly-hoax-of-the-century/ From: the Star Tribune Minneapolis, St. Paul Editorial: State gets ‘Lean’ ideas from business “Putting employees in the lead produces positive results”. Last update: April 6, 2009 - 8:38 PM For any Minnesotan who has waited, and waited, for a state agency to respond to a grant application, or duplicate a ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/20/article-160-minnesota-state-government-leads-the-nation-in-lean/ From Australian CPA Magazine “Mean, lean reform” by Adam Awty updated: Wednesday, 25 August 2004 Adam Awty investigates the rapid financial reform agenda for Singapore’s public sector and speaks to accountant-general Chua Geok Wah FCPA. The saying is that good things come in small packages, a saying that certainly holds true for ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/13/article-159-mean-lean-reform-in-government-accounting/ There are several states that are studying the use of Lean one of these is Georgia. This article suggests how this major streamlining reform of Georgia’s 152 boards, commissions, offices and departments may be approached. Overview We will start by getting the legislature and executive branches of the state ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/07/article-158-the-streamlining-of-georgia-boards-and-commissions-using-lean/ In Iowa Lean is used to make state government “work”. We should not be satisfied with just using Lean to make government “work” but organize it to work efficiently. Here is what Iowa is doing: From: Lean Legacy in Iowa By Jonathan Walters Governing Magazine August 2009 The aim ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/03/article-157-using-lean-to-balance-agency-work-loads/ Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as “Lean”, is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/10/02/article-156-getting-the-most-out-of-lean-as-used-in-government/ Privatize State Government by allowing state agencies, boards and commissions to generate savings to be added to the state’s rainy day fund. Private companies know this as improving processes, increasing productivity and generating profits. But this reform can not be implemented merely by changing a simple government ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/29/article-155-why-not-privatize-state-government-all-of-it/ From Governing Magazine’s article “Lean Legacy” By Jonathan Walters August 2009 Teresa Hay McMahon heads up the performance and results division in the Iowa Department of Management In January 2008, public- and private-sector officials joined forces to create a “Lean Government Collaborative,” to work with and in state agencies to do process ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/26/article-154-streamlining-iowa-boards-and-commissions-using-lean-and-more/ Mending Safety Nets with Technology How a nonprofit start-up turned a process full of vertical hurdles into a client-centric safety net. By Feather O’Connor Houstoun | September 9, 2009 Feather O’Connor Houstoun is president of the William Penn Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region. As a ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/19/article-153-example-of-the-advantage-of-a-relational-database/ Many cost savings proposals fail to get implemented in bureaucratic government especially with strong government employee unions. Any improvement that gets its efficiency from reduced personnel has little chance of being implemented. This is why I advocate the replacement of the Bureaucratic Organization with a Management Steering Team and ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/19/article-152-the-process-of-replacing-bureaucratic-management-with-lean-teams/ It’s the latest, buzziest trend in government management. Just don’t call it a fad. By Ken Miller |Governing Magazine May 21, 2009 Ken Miller is the founder of the Change and Innovation Agency and the author of Governing’s book We Don’t Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths that Keep Government from ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/18/article-151-the-promise-of-going-lean/ Nation wide we should take a hard look at shifting from “hardware-centric, expensive, proprietary silos of data trapped in old databases” into new systems with more of the same obsolete systems architecture. These proprietary systems are difficult and expensive to maintain and cannot be easily integrated with other systems. This ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/12/article-150-the-biggest-boondoggle-ever-in-state-information-technology/ The Amateur Approach to Downsizing Donald Rumsfeld provides us with a good example of what I call the amateur top down approach from my articles 92, 104 and 146. The method is a kind of knee jerk approach. You know that the organization is overstaffed and you guess at ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/08/article-149-secret-and-not-so-secret-methods-for-downsizing/ Atlanta’s four-day workweek has unexpected results. By John O’Leary from Governing.com September 2, 2009 …Like many cities, Atlanta was facing a big projected revenue shortfall, between $60 million and $80 million. To generate savings, Mayor Shirley Franklin chose to institute a furlough program. Starting in December 2008, all municipal employees (except ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/05/article-148-where-less-is-more-efficient/ With State Governors encouraging employees and the public to come up with savings suggestions and with the formation of a Government Reform Committee what should be the governor’s next steps. Example Step 1. State Centralized Pubic Service Portal For example the Government Reform Committee has managed to consolidate more ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/09/01/article-147-what-should-a-governor-be-doing-now-sept-2009/ The following article from Stateline gives one of the best overviews of how states are coping with the current recession. It highlights the problem of where to make cuts but offers no solution But I do in my comments. Budget cuts test state personnel policies By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/08/31/article-146-cost-cutting-a-state-priority-but-where-to-cut/ I became aware of the failure of my Company’s computer systems in 1986. While on the staff of the Vice President of Manufacturing I was asked to look at the problems with the company’s aging IBM computer systems. I did this in an unusual way over the objection ... http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com/2009/08/28/article-145-the-coming-revolution-in-information-technology-systems/