Basic Information about Continuous Improvement at EPA

Continuous Improvement at EPA is currently being implemented by the Office of Continuous Improvement. OCI is located in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and coordinates agency-wide implementation of the the continuous improvement program. 

The continuous improvement program consists of six elements: (1) Problem Solving, (2) Leader Behaviors, (3) Standard Work, (4) Business Reviews, (5) Cascading Measures, and (6) Visual Management. The system uses Lean principles and tools, paired with routine monitoring, measurement and engagement to identify problems, solve problems, and sustain improvements.

We work with process teams across EPA to:

• create and use flow boards to display the status of work, and performance boards to identify and monitor progress toward targets,
• track process-level metrics to help determine if organizations will meet long-term strategic goals,
• use problem-solving tools when targets and/or timeframes are not being met.

Teams also have routine stand-up meetings, or huddles, around their visual management to monitor the status of work, identify issues, and escalate any issues that require management intervention. Teams are encouraged to create standard work or SOPs, to ensure timely delivery, consistent quality, and improved predictability.

Senior leaders are engaging in continuous improvement by:

• meeting regularly at Monthly Business Reviews to discuss organizational performance against monthly targets for key measures
• establishing countermeasures when monthly targets are not achieved
• conducting gemba walks (visiting the visual management established by work units).

Accomplishments

Some accomplishments to-date include:

• More than 11,000 employees are using continuous improvement, representing 83 percent of the agency.
• EPA is improving its processes due to continuous improvement. EPA has improved over 1,000 processes to date. Some examples include:
  • EPA’s Region 9 significantly reduced the time firms and renovators take to get into compliance with residential lead-based paint requirements by 71 percent.
  • EPA Region 2, in a cross-divisional effort, to reduced the backlog in National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits in Puerto Rico by 88 percent.
  • EPA’s Office of Water used reduced backlogs of EPA actions taken on state-submitted lists of waters not meeting water quality standards by 96 percent and associated state-submitted pollution reduction targets for those waters by 99 percent.
  • Under the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the National Enforcement Investigation Center (NEIC), EPA’s accredited environmental forensics center, increased the amount of laboratory reports that are completed in the required 60-day timeframe from 33 percent to 81 percent of reports – increasing the agency’s ability to take timely enforcement and compliance actions.