Skip Maine state header navigation

Agencies | Online Services | Help

Bureau/Division Director’s Meeting

August 17, 2005

Commissioner’s Conference Room

                                                                        

The following are points of interest that were discussed at the Bend the Curve portion of the Bureau/Division Director’s meeting on Wednesday, August 17, 2005:

 

  • The Project Team requested the Outreach & Education VSM Team be used to market BTC to employees and external customers.
    • Marketing needs to be visual. 
    • Develop a marketing strategy where employees can see at a glance what is going on at all times.
    • Have Lean permeate the DOL culture.
  • Jane distributed and discussed a paper on Standards for Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen Events.
    • Jane asked that participants take the required amount of time to do a Value Stream as otherwise, it seems to drag on and on and never gets completed.
  • Steve Campana distributed and discussed a paper on Case Management.  The Directors agreed this should be a separate VSM and not included in the Common Intake VSM.
    • Larinda Meade will be the Sponsor and Steve will be the Manager of the new Case Management VSM.
    • Customer confidentiality will be factored in.
  • Judy Williams did a presentation on the results of various VSM’s undertaken by BUC.  Teams were:
    • Administrative Services for BUC, DAH and UIC – they are doing four areas, telephone, mail, supplies and task lists. Have started the telephone review and are developing a directory with FAQ’s so that any staff person could answer some generic questions.  Exploring possibility of access of this directory on the web.
    • Fact Finding and Appeals – already implemented the new Law Book, new Deputy’s Manual, training schedule beginning in September and streamlined single party fact findings. Have moved into a second phase and have requested supplemental funding for an automatic scheduler and the NonMon rewrite.  The Team emphasizes the importance of the Imaging system to streamline the process.
    • Direct Deposit – While the idea was to develop a process by which a claimant could be paid UI benefits via Direct Deposit, the decision was not to continue as a VSM project.  Instead the team is using a business model approach to map the process.  A design document will be written in which the computer needs and requirements will be identified.
    • UI Tax and Benefits Collections – create consistency in the collection process and reduce customer confusion, provide improved tracking and increase collections. Discovered programming costs are involved and are looking at these costs now.  This is an ongoing team who will be exploring legislative changes in Phase II.
    • Claims Processing – examine the individual processes involved in processing UI claims from first contact through the weekly claims.  Four teams are looking at DWB, B-9’s, the initial claim and monetary determinations.  Focus is on streamlining the process moving the decisions closer to the customer and less focused on outcome measurements.
    • Some Teams found the CI-P’s helpful while others did not feel the need to use them. 
    • There is frustration due to the amount of time the process takes.  Part of this frustration is a result of the extra work that needs to be done between sessions to keep all team members involved because they missed a meeting.
    • Sponsor involvement is critical.  It provides the focus and keeps the team on track.
  • Jill Duson did a Power Point presentation on the success of VSM’s undertaken by the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services. Topics examined were:
    • Staffing
    • Standards and Indicators
    • Data Management
    • Legislation
    • Financial Management
    • Leadership
    • Access to Services
    • Case Work Management Practices
    • Caseload Size
    • Wait List Reduction
    • Successes of VSM Teams were reached in the following:
      • Achieving a conscious focus on Job Development Services and expenditures across BRS as an improvement area. 
      • Job Development Report Format
      • Job Readiness Assessment Tool
    • SAAVR is not included in this assessment.
    • Wait list will continue to be reduced.
    • By the end of September is will be 10.5 months.
  • BTC will be put in the State Government Annual Report, which will be addressed at the next ELT meeting.