Sunday, March 20, 2011

Improving Efficiency: Fixing the Leaky Faucet

Budget cuts in Wisconsin have gained national attention. As government leaders attempt to bridge an estimated $3 billion shortfall in the state’s budget, those charged with carrying out the work of the people continue to look for ways to save money.  Government leaders tend to look for significant cuts and those that will make a sudden, noticeable impact on the bottom line. The most difficult challenge for police administrators is the fact that typically, over 90% of a police department’s budget is labor. Therefore, it is difficult to make any cuts that don’t affect staffing. 

If anything good is to come of a budget crisis, it will be the increased efficiency of government. In policing, improving efficiency means having more resources to devote to public safety. While large ticket items may appear on the surface to make the biggest impact on budgets, we should not minimize the importance of fixing the leaky faucet.

One of the most creative examples I found came from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. An enterprising staffer discovered that changing the font on their printed materials from Arial to Century Gothic reduced ink usage by 30% , resulting in an annual savings of $10,000 (UWGB Changes Font, Saves Cash).

Automation

A few years ago I attended a training conference for Telestaff, a company that produces scheduling software. As the trainer explained the fundamentals of the software he gave this bit of advice; when implementing your scheduling, look to automate small things that you do frequently.  Managers tend to look for one big thing instead of the little thing you do frequently and as a result we miss this low hanging fruit.  

Approving leave requests is a task managers at the Green Bay Police Department perform frequently. Before implementing the electronic scheduling program, this task involved multiple steps.

The old way:
  1. The officer completed a leave slip and brought it to the supervisor for review.
  2. The leave request was recorded on a paper roster.
  3. The signed slip was routed to the records division.
  4. One copy was retained at the police department and another was routed to payroll.
  5. Payroll staff deducted the leave from the employee’s account.
  6. The slip was filed in a vault at city hall.


The new way:

  1. The officer logs into his or her calendar and submits the request.
  2. The shift supervisor reviews it and the request is recorded in the system.
  3. Every 2 weeks an electronic report is generated for payroll and the leave is automatically deducted from the employee’s account.

Aside from the time savings, the department also realized a significant a savings in the cost of printed materials.

Questioning the System:

Prior to my post in Community Policing I took over the position of Traffic Lieutenant in 2004 and was trained by the person I was replacing. One of my many responsibilities was to review traffic citations, mainly those for more serious traffic crimes such as DWI and driving with a revoked license. Since these offenses were classified as traffic crimes, it required a supervisor to review the information to make sure the elements of the crime were met before forwarding the citation to the courts. 

Each citation was accompanied with a paper printout of the subjects driving record, in police lingo, a 10-27. Here’s where it got strange. The paper the 10-27 was printed on was larger than the citation. In order for it to fit on back of citation, the paper was torn with a metal straight edge, folded in an accordion fashion, and stapled to the top copy of the ticket. With the volume of citations we processed, this task took 10-15 minutes per day. The paper tearing seemed a bit tedious but my colleague assured me it was necessary, mainly because the court commissioner reviewing the case needed to have access to this information at the subject’s initial court appearance. 

Once my colleague retired and I took over his duties and attended traffic court. It was then that I discovered the court commissioner did not see the citations. Instead, the commissioner received a written summary (criminal complaint) which was prepared by the district attorney’s office. I learned that the district attorney’s office ran a new record when they receive the complaint. This was because other charges often appeared on the defendant’s record between the time the citation was issued and the time the matter reached the courts. The court commissioner, district attorney and the clerk of courts all ignored our neat little accordion artwork. When I did some checking to see if the practice was really necessary one of the clerks replied, “I always wondered why you guys did that.”  

Ten to 15 minutes a day may not seem like a lot but when you multiply the time spent on this task over a couple of decades the waste is apparent. Frequent tasks like these have a hidden cost. Their cost is not readily visible and therefore things like this do not draw the attention of administrators. Only front line staffers will detect them.

Enlisting Others


Perhaps we are ignoring those who are in the best position to identify waste and improve efficiency. I doubt the decision to switch to Century Gothic came from senior management. It was likely the idea of someone who was involved in printing or purchasing ink cartridges. Your own employees are in the best position to identify these things but they may be reluctant to point them out if managers do not clearly communicate their intentions. No one wants to put them self out of a job. However, most managers prefer to eliminate waste over eliminating jobs. Employees would likely find more job satisfaction from producing meaningful work as opposed to busy work. The best way to preserve jobs is to improve efficiency and reduce waste. Burst pipes get our attention quickly but leaky faucets often go unnoticed.

Key Points

  • Front line staff are the best resource you have in identifying efficiencies
  • Question the system
  • A fresh set of eyes may detect wasteful practices
  • Look for “multipliers”, small tasks that you perform frequently
  • Automate tasks when possible
By the way, did you notice the font? You guessed it, Century Gothic.





Cited Works
"UWGB Changes Font, Saves Cash." WBAY Channel 2 News. WBAY, 30 Mar 2010. Web. 30 Mar 2010.