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Top ten government waste hotspots: Quicks wins to enhance operational efficiency
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Enhancing operational efficiency is a central premise and prioritization for federal agencies. Expectations are high, and so is the pressure to improve processes and reduce government waste. Where should agencies focus efforts to create a government of efficiency?
All eyes are on operational efficiencies
A confluence of factors is driving urgency for operational efficiencies in federal agencies. With increasingly lean budgets and ongoing hiring freezes, there is a critical focus on modernizing decades-old practices. However, leaders struggle with limited visibility into how to enhance operational efficiency due to legacy systems, disconnected practices, and data silos. With uncertainty about future policy and oversight, questions loom around issues related to talent retention such as return-to-office mandates and relocation of agency headquarters. Considering how paramount top talent is to improving government efficiency, the imperative couldn’t be more evident.
Drive operational efficiencies: Start with an inventory of common waste hot spots
Enhancing operational efficiency is a holistic process involving changes to systems, structures, workflows, data, technology, and personnel in line with mission and strategic objectives. While driving operational efficiencies and reducing government waste is a significant undertaking, focusing on common hot spots can jumpstart momentum and deliver quick wins.
Start with an operational efficiency inventory. Ask these key questions about your agency’s performance in the top ten areas of unintended government waste.
1
Time waste: Idle time, overprocessing time, and delays
- Are delays or bottlenecks slowing down our work processes?
- Are we spending more time than necessary on tasks, like excessive meetings or redundant approvals?
- Is inefficient scheduling, long lead times or unplanned downtime causing our teams to fall behind?
2
Process inefficiencies: Manual work, duplicative efforts, and complexity
- What manual tasks could we automate to save time?
- Are multiple employees or teams duplicating efforts without coordination?
- Are workflows too complicated, leading to mistakes and slowdowns?
3
Information waste: Poor communication, data silos, and excessive documentation
- Are we miscommunicating or giving unclear instructions that are creating confusion or delays?
- Is a lack of data sharing amongst our teams, departments, or agencies causing duplication of work?
- Are we generating reports and documentation that aren’t needed, have been superseded or don’t add value to our mission?
4
Resourcing inefficiencies: Material and energy waste
- Do we have excess materials or poor inventory management leading to waste?
- Are we using resources inefficiently in our operations, facilities, and production lines?
- Are we leveraging sustainable practices and technologies to minimize adverse impacts in our resource and utility management?
5
Overproduction: Excess output and premature development
- Are we producing more goods or services than necessary or too soon?
- Are we investing time in features or functions that don’t meet immediate needs?
- Are we over-servicing demands in ways that exceed industry standards, creating avoidable waste that could be addressed through targeted corrective actions upstream to enhance operational efficiency?
6
Defects and errors: Rework and nonconformance
- Are we investing resources to fix mistakes in upstream processes or services?
- Are we failing to meet quality standards in our processes, services, or deliverables?
- Are gaps in our quality standards negatively affecting our downstream teams?
7
Misuse of talent: Underutilization and misalignment
- Are our employees working below their skill level or not being effectively utilized?
- Are we assigning tasks that don’t align with employees’ expertise or agency priorities?
8
Transportation and motion waste: Excessive movement
- Are we moving materials or data unnecessarily between locations?
- Is inefficient movement, like searching for items or navigating cluttered physical or virtual workspaces, affecting our productivity?
- Are our employees navigating bureaucratic obstacles or distractions that hinder their productivity in the workplace?
9
Financial waste: Overstaffing, understaffing, and inefficient procurement
- Are we aligning our staffing levels with actual, activity-based workload demands rather than relying on proportional estimates, to avoid increased costs or unmet service needs?
- Are we overpaying for supplies due to poor contract management or a lack of competitive sourcing?
- Are we regularly reviewing our staffing strategies and procurement processes to identify obsolete roles in order to eliminate outdated practices that lead to unnecessary expenditures?
10
Missed opportunities for government efficiency: Unseen innovations and uncaptured value
- Are we failing to adopt new technologies or methods that could enhance our efficiency?
- Is a lack of government efficiency preventing us from maximizing our mission impact?
- Are we missing opportunities to learn from best practices in other public or private organizations that could accelerate our government efficiency and effectiveness?
By identifying common activities and processes that don’t deliver value to stakeholders, yet consume time, money, and resources, federal agencies can establish a foundation for how to enhance efficiency. While significant work lies ahead, reducing government waste can substantially lower operational costs, accelerate service delivery, and enhance stakeholder satisfaction.
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