Lean Initiatives at EPA and Other Federal Agencies

Drawing on lessons from businesses' adaptation of lean methods to eliminate waste from administrative processes, EPA and an increasing number of other federal agencies are achieving compelling results with lean.

In June 2007, EPA teamed up with Region 7 state environmental agencies (Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Kansas Department of Health and the Environment, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality) to hold a Lean event for water quality standards. The results are impressive. The event reduced the number of the process steps from 50 to 26, decreased the number of EPA decisions needed by 50 percent, and created a common understanding of the process among the participating agencies. As a result, the agencies were awarded an ECOS Innovations Award (PDF) (About PDF)for their work improving the water quality standards review process in Region 7.

Interest in lean process improvement continues to grow throughout EPA—including Headquarters’ offices, the Regions, and the Laboratories.

Many other federal agencies are also implementing lean, including the Department of Defense, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). To view an example presentation from PBGC from January 2008, click here (Microsoft PowerPoint) (24pp, 357K)

For more information about EPA’s Administrative Lean initiative, contact Jamie Burnett by email or by phone, (202) 566-2205.

Lean Home | Top of Page

Lean Initiatives at EPA and Other Federal Agencies

Local Navigation