This document outlines a municipal government department's plan to apply Lean principles to improve processes starting with their internal help desk. It introduces the "House of Toyota" model used, explains why they chose to start with the help desk, and establishes their mission and values to guide the work. Future posts will alternate between explaining Lean concepts and how they are implementing them, beginning with stabilizing the foundation by addressing issues at the help desk.

1. Building
Our House
Applying Lean
principles to the
public sector

2. Builder’s Plans
1

3. This is our version of the
House of Toyota. Some
parts of it are fairly
standard, others are
modified to work for the
public sector.
Let’s review each of the
five sections of our
house, bottom to top.

4. Philosophy
 Also known as values or perhaps mission
 Create solid ground upon which to build a
house by taking time to make this explicit
 Connect the philosophy to every aspect of
the journey
 Communicate the philosophy consistently to
engage the team and foster acceptance

5. Foundation
 The foundation is the place to begin improving
 It must be very strong and stable to support
the house
 Just working on the foundation can make
enormous positive changes
 Start by stabilizing need, then widening focus
to standardize and improve work

6. Core
 The core of the house is people
 The house is designed to show
respect for everyone - workers,
leaders, clients, customers,
vendors and partners
 The work is designed to engage
employees by involving and
empowering them to become
problem solvers

7. City employees can act more quickly
and creatively to resolve issues when
their jobs are defined as problem-
solving rather than rule following.”
“
-Goldsmith & Crawford
T he Res po nsive City

8. Two Pillars
 Two pillars hold up the house and
must be built simultaneously, or
the house might fall down
 Build quality into everything by
error-proofing processes and
fixing problems immediately
 Match the flow of work to the
need in order to deliver goods or
services just in time

9. Results
 Results will accumulate as the house is
built and functioning
 Measure results by tracking quality, lead
time and costs, or use other metrics that
make sense given the work
 Communicate the wins and results with
the team and others to enhance
engagement and continue the journey

10. Preparing the Site
2

11. The Department of
Innovation and Performance
is charged with supporting
the City of Pittsburgh with
improving processes and
performance.
Before we offer our services
elsewhere, we decided to
focus first on improving I&P
to learn what works well in
municipal government.
We are eating our own
dogfood first, so to speak.

12. Our
Structure*
Director
I & P
Asst. Director
Operations
Asst. Director
Client Services
Performance
Improvement
Help Desk
Asst. Director
Digital Services
Our journey to apply
the principles of
Lean begins at the
I&P Help Desk.
* A s o f
A u g 2 0 1 7

13. I&P Help Desk
The I&P Help Desk is the first point of contact for IT
support for the entire organization.
We decided to start our journey with the Help Desk
because:
• It is a part of our core value of being customer focused
• It is directly under our sphere of influence
• There was a strong opinion within the department that the
Help Desk was not meeting customer expectations

14. Help Desk Metrics*
 Average 1400 help tickets submitted
each month
 Sent in via email and phone
 5 team members on Help Desk with an
additional 25 specialists for escalation
 Average 7.6 days to close tickets
 Monthly backlog of open tickets carried
into next month well over 400
* J a n 1 – S e p t 3 0 , 2 0 1 7

15. The most effective way to
cope with change is to help
create it.”
“
-LW Lynett
Fo rmer IBM E xecutive

16. Starting our work at the
I&P Help Desk helps us
learn on a small scale
what is possible when
we apply the principles
of Lean, as depicted by
the House of Toyota.

17. Breaking Ground
3

18. Philosophy
 Public sector organizations ought to be very
connected to the citizens they serve.
 It is important to begin with a clear
understanding of the mission and values of
the organization.
 Employees, as civil servants, bring these
philosophies to life through their work,
hearts and minds.

19. Our Mission
 The mission of the Dept. of Innovation &
Performance is to deliver strategic
technology services and support to all
City departments, foster technology
innovation in City government and the
broader community, and facilitate efficient
and effective City services by supporting
data-driven decision making and
continuous process improvement.

20. Our Values
 The Dept. of Innovation & Performance
delivers on that mission and makes operations
decisions guided by our five values:
 We are focused on our customers and their needs
 We are accountable partners
 We have high technical standards
 We are innovators
 We are strategic advisors

21. In this presentation
we’ve reviewed:
1. The House of Toyota
model for continuous
improvement
2. Where we are getting
started and why
3. The philosophy
(mission & values) of
our department

22. Follow us on our journey!
We will be alternating future posts between
explaining Lean principles and how we have
applied them in practice.
Next post:
Pouring the Foundation
to Stabilize our House