Practical Innovation in Government

9

Dealing with Mid-Level Process Problems

In the late 1980s, Shigeo Shingo, the codeveloper of the Toyota Production System, gave a talk at the University of Massachusetts. A businessperson in the audience asked him what he thought was the most important thing that managers needed to work on. “Process improvement,” Shingo replied. “And most managers really don’t understand its importance or how to go about it.”

In the decades since Dr. Shingo’s comment, process improvement may have become part of the vocabulary of management, but it is not as widely practiced as it should be, in either the public or private sectors. As a result, most organizations still operate far less efficiently and effectively than they could.

This chapter deals with methods ...