Process
Improvement Case Studies
These
three case studies highlight the challenges each department
or organization faced, how they improved their processes and
the results they achieved.
Case
Study 1: License Renewals
Case Study 2: Safety-Issue Reporting
Case Study 3: Firearms & Pardon Application
Process
Case
Study 1: License Renewals
A state worker processed over 4,000 paper-based social
worker license renewals every December while her customers
waited an average of 21 days to receive their license.
The manager noticed the problem and called Zoom for Change.
After receiving their training, the agency's Zoom Team
designed and tested these improvements: |
|
•
|
Simplify
the renewal form. |
|
•
|
Reduce
steps and handoffs. |
|
•
|
Eliminate
unnecessary documentation. |
|
•
|
Web-based
form to eliminate the 10% of applications/year returned
to applicants for errors. This change alone saved $2,000/year
in staff time and postage. |
By
partnering with a non-profit organization interested in collecting
data on health care professionals, the Zoom Team developed
an on-line licensing system. 85% of social workers renewed
their licenses on-line the first year—the average wait-time
dropped to only 2 days due to all the changes the team had
made to the process.
The licensing
Zoom Team then applied the improvements to the procedures
for 14 other licenses issued by the department, saving an
average of 4 weeks processing time on each licensing procedure.
One customer called the manager and said, "I sent in
my renewal over the weekend and received a license in Tuesday's
mail. This can't be my license, right?" The manager happily
replied, "Yes it is!"
Case
Study 2: Safety-Issue Reporting
The administrator of a 1,000-bed Veteran's Home concerned
about slow safety-issue reporting hired Zoom for Change
to coach a team that had met for 3 years and not fixed
the problem. The new Zoom Team found the safety incident
reports took 54 days to be processed. Most of that time
the reports sat on 7 managers' desks awaiting review and
approval. The team believed that state code required 7
signatures. When we challenged that assumption, they discovered
that only 1 signature was required, and it could be electronic.
|
|
|
| The
Zoom Team designed and tested these improvements: |
|
•
|
Simplify
the safety-issue reporting form. |
|
•
|
Clearly
defined criteria for which incidents should be reported. |
|
•
|
Track
errors never tracked before. |
|
•
|
Develop
an intranet tracking system for all errors, incidents,
and safety issues, including the ability to create customized
reports. |
The new
web-based reporting system processes incident reports in 2
days, a 96% improvement, and sends managers customized safety
data reports enabling pro-active responses to safety problems.
Case
Study 3: Firearms & Pardon Application Process
The Governor wanted to improve the firearms and pardon
application process. This process allows convicted felons
to apply to own firearms or for a pardon years after their
parole. The original application process took 978 days
on average. But the Governor's big concern was that each
application required about 44 hours of research by a criminal
investigation agent to recommend denial or approval. |
|
|
| The
Governor's staff worked with a cross-agency Zoom Team
that designed and tested these improvements: |
|
•
|
Simplify
the application. |
|
•
|
Require
the applicant to supply a criminal history record. |
|
•
|
Use
a checklist to cut transcription time. |
|
•
|
Send
the completed investigation report directly to the Board
of Parole instead of to the Governor's office. |
|
•
|
Streamline
the criminal investigation. This reduced agent time from
44 hours to 12 hours/application. |
The
new process takes half the time to complete. Most importantly,
the new process frees-up one full-time criminal agent per
year to investigate real crimes against citizens.
Your
Organization Can Do It, Too
In less than a week, your organization's teams can be handling
problems using a proven successful combination of training
and facilitation. Your boss, employees and customers will
appreciate how quickly and easily they see tangible improvements
within your budget. You are assured a positive return on your
investment.
Contact
us today for more information.
Process
Improvement Results | Testimonials
| About Us
|
