Case Study: Pierce County Procurement Streamlines Contracting &

Procurement ProcessesUsing Lean To Standardize Processes

By: Julie Griffin, Project Manager, Department of Public Works & Utilities

Summary by:

Public Works & Utilities (PWU)

• used to have its own contracting and procurement processes

• sought to streamline its work

• combined Lean principles and best practices to eliminate invoice processing delays and approval times

• One standard invoicing process replaced seven processes

• One standard process for assigning work replaced eight processes

• One standard process for procuring and managing small works contracts replaced eight processes

Department Establishments

Process Improvement Techniques Used

• Work flow mapping

• Root cause analysis

• Brainstorming

• Voice of the Customer (VOC)

Improving Completion Rates & Reducing Errors

• The team also

• reduced the amount of repeated work

• began creating requests for proposals and amendments correctly the first time from 50% to 90-95%

• launched the implementation phase of the contract management review initiative

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