How to achieve operational excellence in business can be addressed through the framework of an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management system. The case study below illustrates the value of an IEE approach to implement operational excellence in an organization.
How to Achieve Operational Excellence in Business: Austin Texas DNA Lab Testing Case Study
An operational excellence business management system is needed in the city government of Austin Texas. ith this system, the city can reduce risks of problems and improve customer satisfaction. Other businesses and governments can also benefit from the described approach for implementing operational excellence.
Austin American Statesman Letter to the Editor
My views about the need for a city of Austin Operational Excellence system to address the below-described DNA lab testing issues were described in a published Austin American Statesman Letter to the Editor.
How to Achieve Operational Excellence in Business Case Study: Austin Hiring Process Needs Improvement and DNA Bucked Standards for years.
Since I initiated this blog on the need for the City of Austin to implement an effective Operational Excellence system, the Austin American Statesman wrote the follow-up articles that described:
- Issues with the hiring process in the Forensic Lab.
- Bucking DNA standards for years, yet got passing grades.
- Austin DNA bucked new standards when imploding crime lab got passing grades
- 2,200 convicted persons to be notified of Austin DNA lab problems
These are additional examples of why the City of Austin needs to implement a structured Operational Excellence Integrated Enterprise Excellence System that integrates automatically updated process-reported scorecards with its procedural methodologies the impacted the performance metrics.
How to Achieve Operational Excellence in Business Case Study: Austin DNA Lab Testing Issues may cost $14 million
The Austin American Statesman reported in an article ″DNA lab mess may cost $14 million″
- DNA testing issues involve post-conviction case reviews since 2004
- Audit cited staff training and said workers used incorrect methods when they examined DNA samples
- Cost estimates were stated between $6 million and $14.4 million
- The cost of reviewing thousands of DNA-reported cases are to come out of property taxes
- Whether police should continue running lab is under debate
In the article ″Austin DNA lab problems could raise taxes″ it was stated that Judge Eckhardt has explained the major downstream effect caused by the problems uncovered at the Austin Police Department’s DNA lab. The widespread DNA issues at the crime lab led to its closure in June of 2016.
How to Achieve Operational Excellence in Business: Reporting Transparency and Timeliness
Why did it take so long to determine in the Austin city government that a DNA testing problem existed in the Austin police crime lab? One would have thought that there would have been audits that should have uncovered this issue long before now; i.e., 2004 is 12 years ago. Were audits of the DNA testing crime lab conducted both timely and accurately? Did the results from any audits get evaluated and reported to leadership so that any issue was timely resolved and improvements made when appropriate?
The Zucker report described issues in the planning department, where issues identified many years ago were not been resolved. For example, the time for inspections is very lengthy and has inconsistencies. The City of Austin’s process relative to conducting inspections is very much in needed of an operational excellence approach for improved tracking and process improvement so that customer satisfaction feedback improves.
One could speculate that there are other issues prevalent in the Austin city government. Something fundamentally needs to be done differently in the City of Austin government — as a whole! An overall operational excellence system can be very beneficial to the city. Benefits from this methodology includes better use of tax payer dollars and reducing the risk of something going wrong.
Operational Excellence System Resolution
The city of Austin needs to have transparency in reporting and a methodology that aligns performance measures with the processes that created them. Organizations, in general, can address these needs through implementation of the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Operational Excellence system. The 9-step IEE Operational Excellence system addresses the issues described in a 1-minute video.
Step 2 of the IEE 9-step system offers a clickable value chain that links processes with predictive performance measures so that everyone authorized in an organization can have timely information about performance measures and the processes that created them. If the predictive performance reporting on any KPI (key performance indicator) or other metric is not satisfactory, the process needs improvement. A 30,000-foot-level predictive performance metric report-out would identify when a process enhancement occurs and quantifies the benefit.
The IEE system addresses the common place business management scorecard and process improvement issues that are described in a 1-minute video:
Operational Excellence References
- What does an IEE Operational Excellence system solve
- Operational Excellence Book
- Business Process Improvement Book
- University of Texas Lean Six Sigma Training in Austin
- Smarter Solutions Operational Excellence Training and Lean Six Sigma training
Contact Us to set up a time to discuss with Forrest Breyfogle how your organization might gain much from an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Business Process Management System implementation for addressing the question “how to achieve operational excellence in business”.