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ARTICLE 3: Lean Public Service?

Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago – did you apply for your new computer generated birth certificate by mail?  Or did you procrastinate like me and wait until you needed to renew your passport and have to go to the Ministry of Legal Affairs for a ‘same day’ birth certificate?

If you fall into the latter category, I bet you have given up procrastination once and for all as traumatic experiences usually lead to repentance and reform.

Don’t get me wrong – a same day service in any part of the public service is a great thing but only 2% of the time I spent at the Ministry was ‘value adding’ time vs the 98% of time that could be categorized as ‘waste’ or ‘muda’ in Lean terms.

I got there at 6:30 a.m. and was processed at 10:00 a.m. and the scenario was worse when I took my mother to get hers because after arriving at 6:30a.m., she got her five minutes of processing at 3:30p.m.

Let’s focus on my experience though. I arrived a little before 6:30 a.m., had my handbag checked by a security officer at the entrance then proceeded to another security officer who handed me a number and directed me to sit under a tent at the back of the building.

A little before 8:00a.m., forms were handed out. I already had a form filled out as I was given one the day before when I was turned away because I had, apparently ‘…come too late.’  Numbers were given out up to 9:30a.m. so if you came after that you had to return another day.

Eventually, numbers were called in batches.  I later learnt that this only meant you were to enter the building to sit in a smaller holding area until – guess what – numbers were called in batches again.

When your number was called this time, you were invited to line up in another area to be processed by a clerk.

When you finally reached the desk with your filled out form, you were generally processed in less than five minutes and told to return anytime after 1p.m. for your certificate.

When you returned in the afternoon, you were again given a number and processed in batches (under the tent this time).

The ironic thing about this is that actual processing is fast and efficient with little waste.  All the eight wastes were evident though, including the wastes of transport, inventory, movement, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects and underutilized staff.