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Other inmates take furniture orders at one end of a long row of desks in the prison’s furniture-business office. The desks are arranged in the sequence of the decisions that have to be made, helping orders move into production within 36 to 48 hours compared with two weeks previously.
Right next door, the Correctional Industries’ factory has carefully placed equipment for manufacturing – tables, steel filing cabinets, chairs and other cubicle furnishings – in small zones devoted to each task. The number of tools and steps is minimized, using the “Lean” industrial design principles pioneered by Toyota Corp. more than two decades ago.
“Everything is put in flow. Everything is placed strategically,” said Jeannie Miller of Washington Correctional Industries, on a recent tour of the Stafford Creek facility.
Correctional Industries – a division of the Department of Corrections that puts prisoners to work, combining job training with the production of uniforms, food and office furnishings used by government agencies – was one of the first state agencies to launch a Lean plan in 2007.
Stafford Creek prison has become something of a model for its use of Lean management concepts also used by the Boeing Co. and several large health care organizations in Seattle and Tacoma to cut waste and improve products.
Miller and other officials at the Department of Corrections say Stafford Creek is saving taxpayers money and that the factory’s techniques add value to its products.
LEAN APPROACH FOR LEAN TIMES
Gov. Chris Gregoire has touted Lean as a major reform to make government more effective. The lame-duck Democrat signed an executive order Dec. 15 that requires her executive agencies to complete a Lean-inspired project by Aug. 31. Her goal: Cut waste and improve service.
“We are very serious about this and putting a lot of energy into it. We think we will be successful with the direction we have,’’ said Wendy Korthius-Smith, director of Gregoire’s office of accountability.
Other states also are using Lean, although the number is still fewer than a dozen, according to national experts, including Harry Kenworthy. The Connecticut-based Lean consultant said Iowa set up its own department to oversee its Lean campaign. Individual state agencies also are using it in Oregon, Minnesota, Ohio and other states.
Kenworthy expects to save Connecticut about $200,000 a week in mailing costs at its driver-licensing agency through one current project.
The Lean philosophy aims to break down management barriers, amplify workers’ voices in designing the work process, cut waste in time and materials, and improve the product.
Some state businesses – Boeing and Virginia Mason Hospital and Medical Center among them – are lending their Lean experts to Gregoire’s cash-strapped agencies to help leaders bring about the “culture” change Lean envisions.
DOING BETTER WORK, QUICKER, FOR LESS
At Stafford Creek’s nearly 2,000-inmate facility near Aberdeen, Correctional Industries staffers cite many examples of Lean paying off:
• The furniture factory that opened last year covers 58,000 fewer square feet than factories formerly spread over many sites at the Monroe Reformatory and at the since-closed McNeil Island prison.
• Filing cabinet parts that used to come from Wisconsin are crafted in-house, cutting delays, inventory and the cost to state agencies that buy them. Sheet steel is ordered from Western Steel in Aberdeen, which can deliver the next day; a big machine punches out steel pieces for assembly and later painting in a dry-coat machine.
• Food costs were cut dramatically in the food-services operation. The secret to savings: a standardized menu for all state prisons and the use of scan cards to make sure inmates don’t eat twice. Lean improvements in prisons across the state are saving $1.3 million per year on food, according to Joe Williamson, who oversees 350 inmates and 28 civilians in the Stafford Creek kitchen that serves 6,000 meals a day.
• Portion control and dietitan-designed meals have lowered salt levels in prison food. Officials hope to lower state health costs for inmates as a result.
Chuck Barrow, Correctional Industries supervisor at Stafford Creek, said Lean is using common sense to lay out work spaces and evaluate what a task requires. Lean also means inviting workers to ask questions about how to do better, and the questions go well beyond manufacturing.
“Does it make sense that I physically sign this piece of paper?” Barrow said. “Can we use an electronic signature?”
LAWMAKERS SKEPTICAL
State lawmakers are giving mixed reviews to the governor’s effort.
Democratic Rep. Luis Moscoso of Shoreline has proposed a bill that declares it the Legislature’s intention to make more use of Lean. House Bill 2173 was approved by the House State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee last week.
But Rep. Mark Miloscia of Federal Way and Sen. Jim Kastama of Puyallup, both Democrats, say Gregoire’s effort is too small to succeed.
Miloscia, a professional auditor, says it is “dabbling” and that the governor’s plan needs massive infusions of training dollars – beyond the donated training that Gregoire’s accountability leader Korthius-Smith has secured from Boeing and others.
Miloscia said the state also needs to measure its gains.
During a recent legislative hearing, other lawmakers expressed concern about costs, and Republicans asked if Lean can be used to reduce staffing. One Lean expert, John Vicklund of Impact Washington in Everett, said using it to cut jobs is the wrong approach and that a focus on that kills the incentive for workers to offer innovation.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688
bshannon@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
