Stimulus Spending Needs Jidoka – The Proof Is In the Pork
Information on recovery.gov recently reported that the Department of Agriculture was paying $1.2 million for 2 pounds of frozen ham.
In fact the contract in question
actually purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million for food
banks and homeless shelters. In response to misstated information the
board overseeing recovery.gov
refused to correct the information stating it was not their job – it
was the Department of Agriculture’s responsibility to correct the
information. "We get this information from the agency and we're not
going to correct their information," board spokesman Ed Pound said.
"We're not going to go in and clarify these summaries. We're not going
to fix it. I suppose if they send us a note to change it, we might.
"Unfortunately this highlights the challenge of managing a program as
far reaching and complex as the stimulus funding. It also highlights
one of the most difficult aspects of implementing Lean – particularly
within large, complicated and functionally siloed organizations such as
government. It would be surprising to not have seen dozens of
government employees to read about or hear Mr. Pound’s comments, hang
their heads and walk away grumbling about how things never change.
What should have happened in this scenario is that the recovery.gov
team should have recognized that something was amiss in the information
provided versus just mindlessly inputting data. They would have
contacted the team at the Department of Agriculture to notify them that
their report was incorrect and to please investigate the information
before the deadline to post it. The source of the information would
then investigate, correct the information and forward it to the recovery.gov
team. The Department of Agriculture would then have investigated the
root cause of the wrong information and put in place permanent
corrective action to mitigate the wrong information being posted again.
Ideally the final step would have been for them to share lessons
learned with other agencies.
In the Toyota Production System or
Lean Management this is known as Jidoka. More often we refer to it as
abnormality management and mistake proofing. It is one of the basic
tenants of Lean management and a key differentiator between the success
Toyota has enjoyed with Lean principles and the applications normally
found in other companies and industries.
The type of thinking demonstrated by the recovery.gov
team in this case is exactly what was in place (and likely still is)
within financial services, automotive manufacturing, healthcare,
airlines and other industry verticals that have gotten themselves in
significant stress. And, as demonstrated above, it exists within
government.
To ensure this type of dysfunctional culture will
not be one of the most difficult challenges the new administration will
face in driving change, it will require commitment, follow-through and
consistency to create a high-performance government.
