Last week Stephen Crate who writes for the blog at iSixSigma.com on Lean government turned me onto the great work being done with Lean government at the State of Maine. Many thanks, Stephen!

According to information on Stephen Crate's blog:

- The Maine Department of Labor began their Lean transformation in 2003
- The State of Maine adopted "Bend the Curve" to reverse their looming $9 million budget shortfall.
- They combined Lean manufacturing principles with the emerging public sector strategy of "public value"
- They are improving the quality and efficiency of the services they provide at a lower cost

The State of Maine DOL goals are:
- Provide the same or better customer service
- Shift the work of the department to match customer expectations and needs
- Achieve efficiencies by fundamentally changing how work gets done
- Improve intradepartmental collaboration and service integration
- Decrease expenditures by at least $9M and significantly reduce staffing levels over three years while minimizing layoffs

This is being done through a combination of leadership development for managers and front line staff, continuous improvement based on mapping current states and setting target future states, and evaluating and increasing the public value of services provided.

Take some time to look through State of Maine Department of Labor pages. The website is an absolute wealth of information on the work they are doing with Lean government, some of the tools and approaches they are using (Value Stream Mapping for one) and a well-maintained news and events pages. Whether you're a Lean government practitioner or just a kaizen enthusiast there's value here.

Speaking of value, Stephen Crate also pointed out a very good article titled Creating Public Value: An Analytical Framework for Public Service Reform by Gavin Kelly, Geoff Mulgan and Stephen Muers of a group called the Strategy Unit of the U.K. government. Worth a read, but this one is more for the serious Lean government advocate.

"Public value" is a new term to me, and it is explained as a service that the constituent (or customer) "is willing to give up something in return for it." Having our customer define value as whey they are willing to pay for is old had to us in the private sector, but refreshing when coming from a government agency. Go Maine DOL!