Value Stream Mapping the Delaware Air Quality Permitting Process

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Value Stream Mapping the Delaware Air Quality
Permitting Process

• Bob Zimmerman
• State-EPA Symposium on Environmental Innovation
  and Results
• January 23-25, 2006

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Delaware Value Stream Mapping Project Partners

• Delaware Economic Development Office
• Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership
• DNREC Office of the Secretary
• DAWM Air Quality Management
• General Motors
• Daimler Chrysler
• CIBA Specialty Chemicals
• ILC Dover, Inc.
• PPG Industries
• DuPont

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Value Stream Mapping Process Objectives

• Improve the permitting process without weakening
  regulatory requirements.
• Capture the experience of those who have to meet
  the regulatory requirements.
• Process redesign activity would be transparent to
  the public and the regulated community.

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Value Stream Mapping Process

• Why?
• Listening to voice of customer
• DEDO report on industry clusters to Governor -
  early 2005
• DNREC asked to identify specific process - AQ
  construction permitting selected
• Stakeholders (Public/ Industry/ DNREC)
• Improve permitting process
• Reduce processing time/effort
• Create greater business certainty
• Optimize DNRECs resources for other functions
• Improve environmental quality

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Perspectives from Delawares Business Community

• Cost issues due to
• Cumbersome and slow permitting process
• No allowance for green companies that are
  proactive and stay in compliance

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Delaware Value Stream Mapping

• For public transparency we created a web page for
  the DNREC/ DEDO Value Stream Mapping project
• http//www.dnrec.state.de.us/DNREC2000/VSM/Index.h
  tm
• All materials are available on the web page

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History

• DNREC / DEDO Value Stream Mapping Process
• June 05 Initial Scoping Meeting
• July 05 Planning Session
• Aug 05 3 Day Training / Action Plan
• Sept 05 30 Day Progress/ Plan Review
• Oct 05 60 Day Progress/ Plan Review
• Nov 05 90 Day Progress/ Plan Review
• Jan 06 120 Day Progress/ Plan Review

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Mapping the Current State

• Created the goal for the session
• Defined what was in scope and out of scope
• Mapped the current state of the Air Quality
  Construction Permitting Process.

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Goal for VSM Project

• Develop and implement an air permitting process
  that results in expeditious issuance of
  environmentally sound, operationally flexible and
  achievable permits in a timeframe not to exceed
  90 days and ensure requirements are identified
  clearly prior to submittal reducing re-work in
  the process to 50

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Mapping the Current State

• Lessons learned
• Majority of process problems stem from the permit
  applications!
• First pass quality yield was lt 1
• Assuming perfect customer input, first pass
  quality yield was 18
• Re-work was nearly 100!
• Construction permits issued within 180 days

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Mapping the Current State

• Identified opportunities for improvement called
  Kaizen Bursts.
• Kaizen are rapid improvement processes
  focused on eliminating waste, improving
  productivity, and achieving continual
  improvement.
• Kaizen Bursts were used to help create the
  Future State.

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Creating the Future State

• Defined our future state where we wanted to be
  in one year
• Internal first pass quality yield - 80
• Customer information quality - 80
• Administrative completeness - 100
• Technical completeness - 80
• Re-work less than 50
• Construction permit issued within 90 days

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Achieving Our Future State

• Identified and scheduled specific tasks to
  accomplish. These tasks included
• create visual tracking boards
• implement a First-In-First-Out system
• create permitting checklists
• seek applicant feedback
• modify our applications to make them more user
  friendly
• modify application review process and
• collecting new performance metrics.

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Visual Tracking Board
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Project Highlights

• Surveyed applicants to discuss why they submitted
  incomplete applications and learned important
  information.
• Reduced our permitting backlog from 199 AQ
  construction permits on 8/24/2005 to 48 on
  1/11/2006.
• Implemented a First-In-First-Out system.
• Now issuing AQ construction permits within 61
  days of receiving a complete application

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What We Learned from Applicants

• Difficult to know which form to complete
• Difficult to know where and how to obtain
  information that is requested
• Difficult to know which questions to answer and
  which ones are not applicable
• Applicants would like help with engineering
  calculations
• Applicants would like to know why specific
  information is requested

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Important Process Improvements

• Future State includes three important changes to
  the permitting process
• Pre-Submittal Meeting
• Administratively Complete Gate
• Technically Complete Gate

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DNREC Value Stream Mapping Air Permitting Process
Future State

• PLUS
• Top Down Commitment
• Cross Functional Communications
• Employee Involvement
• First Time Quality
• Partnership Support
• Customer Focus and Communications

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER NOVEMBER 05

• MINUS
• Reduced Waste in
• Motion
• Waiting
• Processing
• Rework
• Lead time

Current State
Created a permitting process that is
environmentally sound, operationally flexible and
achievable.
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Next Steps

• We are still working on some of the action items
  required to implement the process.
• We are seeking volunteers (especially our
  permittees) to participate in the permit
  application redesign.
• We are reviewing/revising the metrics for permit
  processing.

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Schedule

• Feb 06 - Complete drafts of all VSM action items
• Mar-April 06 - Train regulated community on new
  processes and documentation
• May-June 06 Debug new processes
• July 06 complete full implementation of new
  processes

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For more information

• Robert J. Zimmerman
• Office of the Secretary, Director of External
  Affairs
• Robert.Zimmerman_at_state.de.us
• 302-739-9000
• Ali Mirzakhalili
• Program Administrator, Air Quality Management
• Ali.Mirzakhalili_at_state.de.us
• 302-739-9400
• Amy Mann
• Environmental Engineer III, AQM
• Amy.Mann_at_state.de.us
• 302-323-4542

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Lessons Learned by Nebraska, Michigan and Delaware

• Worth the effort
• Carefully select the situation or process
• There is a lot more waste than you realize
• Eliminating waste doesnt mean eliminating people
• Goal-setting is critical
• Communications (before, during and after)
• Active and visible management support
• Be prepared for resource issues
• Follow- thru essential to keep on track