Building the Future Faster

Case_20_San_Diego_County.pdf

Problem
When real estate developers needed to deal with San Diego County in order to obtain building permits, they were required to make nine separate visits, on average, to various county departments and agencies, and to navigate a mix of different fee structures, requirements and priorities. For example, one department focused on upholding building codes, another cared about environmental oversight and a third cared about how the proposed new structure would fit into the county’s master development plan. There simply was no single point of contact to provide applicants with the information and direction they needed to effectively, and successfully, accomplish the building permit process in a reasonable length of time. Indicative of the disjointed nature of the process, applicants walked a total of nearly 9/10 of a mile between various agency service counters to complete the process.

Approach
To improve this process, San Diego County formed a 15-person team with representatives from the various departments involved in the building permit process and two “customer” representatives—builders who were familiar with the permit application and approval process and who stood to benefit from an improved process. The team decided to use a proven Lean Six Sigma (LSS) method—a Kaizen event—to: review payment of fees and deposits, review steps in the process and study the procedures used for inspections, cashiering, grading and condition satisfaction. The goals of the Kaizen were to reduce the number of trips an applicant was required to make to the county’s permitting headquarters and to reduce wait time. The Kaizen was a five-day event that identified duplication of effort in the process, and revealed opportunities to reduce decision-making and hand-offs without negatively impacting the process. A number of areas for streamlining and improvement were targeted.

Results
The most important outcome of the Kaizen event was establishment of a “Quick Business” counter that would be open five days a week. The intent of this service counter was to provide applicants with a single location where those with simple, quick questions and issues could go to get immediate help. Resolving these questions and issues early served to prevent delays later. Having this single point of contact helped applicants identify problems with their projects upfront, and allowed them to address those issues prior to investing significant time in a permit that would ultimately be rejected. As a result of opening the Quick Business counter, the county was able to cut the amount of time needed for granting a permit in half. The amount of walking from department to department was reduced by 55 percent. Other improvements included:
** 47 percent reduction in decisions involved in the overall process
** 80 percent reduction in electronic handoffs and 66 percent reduction in physical handoffs
** 80 percent reduction in waiting periods between process steps
** 55 percent reduction in loop-backs (returns to earlier steps in the process)
As a result of these improvements, substantial county employee time has been saved and builders are now reporting greater satisfaction with the process.  Relationships with these builders have been improved and their frustration with the earlier process has been greatly reduced.  (1)

Case Study: Using Kaizen to Streamline a County Building Permit Process, Guidon Performance Solutions, LLC,  2009