Released on June 22, 2010
Government is continuing its commitment to public service renewal by expanding the Lean initiative to all Government Ministries.
Lean is a client-focused approach to evaluating service delivery in a workplace to improve processes and procedures. Based on the productive year-long experience in the Ministry of Health, Lean is a best-practice method of eliminating workplace waste, variation and work imbalance.
"As we've seen from the Ministry of Health's experiences, the Lean approach is an effective way to streamline our approach to service delivery," Minister responsible for the Public Service Commission June Draude said. "I'm confident that incorporating Lean across the public service will improve our processes and enable us to provide even better services to residents of Saskatchewan."
Saskatchewan will be the first provincial government in Canada to incorporate the Lean approach throughout its public service.
Staff from Ministries will be trained in Lean techniques, and will incorporate those techniques into the workplace. The Public Service Commission will be working with Westmark Consulting LLP from Vancouver, B.C. to provide training and support for Ministries not already undertaking Lean initiatives. Enterprise Saskatchewan and the Ministries of Health and Government Services have already begun Lean initiatives.
Senior executives from Ministries will participate in Lean training beginning in July 2010, and will initially identify two workplace processes that they wish to improve. Appropriate staff and managers will then be trained in Lean techniques and will work with Lean consultants to identify further opportunities for improvement.
"We expect to see ideas and improvements identified by Ministries starting at the beginning of October," Draude said. "I am looking forward to hearing what improvements staff will suggest as they work through the Lean process."
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For more information, contact:
Colleen Hawkesford
Public Service Commission
Regina
Phone: 306-787-5581
Email: colleen.hawkesford@gov.sk.ca