March 2018 Newsletter
Distinguished Lean Practitioner Winner!
The Distinguished Lean Practitioner award recognizes an employee for their significant contributions in supporting continuous improvement efforts in Des Moines Public Schools. Judi Martens was an early adaptor of Lean as the Team Lead of our third Kaizen, the Accounts Payable Disbursement Kaizen, that took place in September 2015. Her dedication to leading that team and improving the disbursement process has resulted in the successful implementation and sustainment of the project. A few improvements that resulted in FY17 from her and the team’s work included reducing by 5.7% the use of paper checks, saving $9,000 in check stock paper, printer and postage costs; increasing by 7.5% the use of pCards to pay invoices, generating $107,000 in rebate revenue; implementing virtual card payments (an electronic payment method) to vendors, generating another $32,000 in rebate revenue; and centralizing electronic invoice and pCard receipt collection and distribution. Congratulations Judi!
Find out more about the award here.
The Distinguished Lean Practitioner award recognizes an employee for their significant contributions in supporting continuous improvement efforts in Des Moines Public Schools. Judi Martens was an early adaptor of Lean as the Team Lead of our third Kaizen, the Accounts Payable Disbursement Kaizen, that took place in September 2015. Her dedication to leading that team and improving the disbursement process has resulted in the successful implementation and sustainment of the project. A few improvements that resulted in FY17 from her and the team’s work included reducing by 5.7% the use of paper checks, saving $9,000 in check stock paper, printer and postage costs; increasing by 7.5% the use of pCards to pay invoices, generating $107,000 in rebate revenue; implementing virtual card payments (an electronic payment method) to vendors, generating another $32,000 in rebate revenue; and centralizing electronic invoice and pCard receipt collection and distribution. Congratulations Judi!
Find out more about the award here.
Our March Status Quo Breaker is...
Dan Sloan, Technology Services Manager, is being recognized as our March Status Quo Breaker! Dan participated in Introduction to Continuous Improvement in the Fall and has put his Lean thinking to great use. He is always asking "why?" to improve processes in Technology and adding ideas to their Lean action board. In addition, Dan was a team member on a HR project and was interested in not only his part of the work but getting to know the whole system to help suggest improvements. Thank you, Dan!
The Status Quo Breaker is a monthly traveling trophy recognition of an employee for their contribution to process improvement, to say thank you for being Lean and/or for helping make DMPS Leaner.
Dan Sloan, Technology Services Manager, is being recognized as our March Status Quo Breaker! Dan participated in Introduction to Continuous Improvement in the Fall and has put his Lean thinking to great use. He is always asking "why?" to improve processes in Technology and adding ideas to their Lean action board. In addition, Dan was a team member on a HR project and was interested in not only his part of the work but getting to know the whole system to help suggest improvements. Thank you, Dan!
The Status Quo Breaker is a monthly traveling trophy recognition of an employee for their contribution to process improvement, to say thank you for being Lean and/or for helping make DMPS Leaner.
Procurement Kaizen Update
The Procurement Kaizen was one of the first continuous improvement projects held in July 2015. The project team was tasked with developing strategies and procedures to reduce waste in purchasing processes. The team recommended several long-term action steps with a 5-year implementation timeline. Short-term successes leading to the long-term goal include
The Procurement Kaizen was one of the first continuous improvement projects held in July 2015. The project team was tasked with developing strategies and procedures to reduce waste in purchasing processes. The team recommended several long-term action steps with a 5-year implementation timeline. Short-term successes leading to the long-term goal include
- Monitoring of ERP downtime
- pCard enhancements -- split funding, new routing, centralized reconciliation
- Spending trends and analytics
- Asset management system
- Contracts management system
Would you like your CI project highlighted in this newsletter? Be sure to report your results!
Shout Outs!
Thank you to the Early Childhood Leadership team for allowing me to attend your team meeting to talk about Lean!
Thank you Steve Howell, Dave Murillo, Travis Rhiner, Larry Rogers, Tim Sieleman, Troy Tyler, and Pam Rosa for taking time to brainstorm and recommend changes to security processes!
Thank you Steve Howell, Dave Murillo, Travis Rhiner, Larry Rogers, Tim Sieleman, Troy Tyler, and Pam Rosa for taking time to brainstorm and recommend changes to security processes!
