The City of Cockburn partnered with CI Teams and Essemy to embed Lean principles into its service review and business improvement processes. The objective was to create a culture of continuous improvement that empowered frontline staff, enhanced service delivery, and supported long-term operational sustainability.
Background
Historically, the City of Cockburn applied the UTS methodology for service reviews. While this approach helped identify broad areas for improvement, it often prioritised reviews based on topical issues or perceived needs rather than objective evidence from the frontline. This limited opportunities to focus on areas where data indicated the greatest potential for impact. Additionally, the process tended to concentrate on major changes, overlooking smaller, incremental improvements that could deliver sustainable benefits.
To address these challenges, the City sought to introduce a Lean-based Service Review model, one that focused on small, incremental changes, continuous team engagement, and data-driven decision-making.
The Lean Implementation Journey
1. Building Awareness & Skills
The journey began with Lean/CI awareness workshops, aimed at building internal capability. These sessions included training of staff in the practical application of Lean/CI tools including DOWNTIME, SIPOC and Process Mapping. This helped staff across departments understand where they fit in the COC Value Chain and the health of their current state processes, what is working well, where bottlenecks are occurring, and where variation or waste existed.
This early stage was crucial for establishing a shared language around Lean and for reinforcing the importance of teams owning their processes. By visualising their work, team members could see inefficiencies clearly and contribute ideas for improvement.
2. Building the Rapid Business Improvement Model
Following initial training and mapping, CI Teams collaborated with Cockburn to build a Rapid Business Improvement (RBI) Model aligned with the city’s existing UTS Service Review framework.
The goal was not to replace the system entirely, but to complement it with Lean tools and thinking, making service reviews more agile, inclusive, and focused on value creation.
The model empowered the internal business improvement team to facilitate ongoing reviews, using structured methods that engaged staff and produced measurable results.
3. Engaging the Workforce through Data and Dialogue
The approach began with one-on-one interviews with staff to uncover frontline frustrations, inefficiencies, and ideas.
Each concern was recorded in the CI Teams Improvement Tracker, which captured key data including:
- Frequency and seriousness of concerns
- Impact categories (including cost, quality, people, process, safety, culture)
- Type of waste (aligned to the Lean 8 wastes)
- Priority for resolution
This structured data collection provided a clear, evidence-based picture of where to focus improvement efforts. It also demonstrated to staff that their input directly shaped organisational priorities, building trust and engagement.
4. Process Mapping and Future State Design
With data-driven priorities in hand, the next step involved facilitated process mapping sessions.
Teams collaboratively mapped the current state and identified future state improvements using Lean techniques such as:
- SIPOC analysis
- Identification of Non-Value-Added (NVA) activities
- Standardisation opportunities
- Analysis of process steps
This hands-on participation helped teams see their work as a system, not a set of isolated tasks, and generated collective ownership over the proposed solutions.
5. Problem Solving and Implementation
CI Teams facilitated problem-solving workshops to identify the root cause of high impact concerns using structured Lean tools:
- 5 Whys
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagrams
- A3 Project Planning (Plan–Do–Check–Act)
These sessions turned improvement ideas into actionable project plans, complete with timelines, measures of success, and assigned responsibilities. Coaching support ensures that projects stay aligned with Lean principles and are sustainable beyond facilitation.
6. Standardisation and ROI Tracking
Once improvements are implemented, new procedures will be standardised into daily operations through the creation of Standard Work Documents.
ROI can then be captured using before-and-after comparisons, measuring time and cost savings, quality improvements, and customer impact.
This structured reporting provides the City of Cockburn with tangible evidence of progress and demonstrated how small, incremental changes, when compounded, can lead to substantial operational gains.
Outcomes and Impact
The Lean approach is delivering measurable success at the City of Cockburn:
- Enhanced employee engagement through involving team members in problem solving and decisions that may impact them
- Improved service efficiency via waste reduction and process standardisation
- Data-driven prioritisation ensuring effort is focused on high-impact issues
- Capability building across teams, enabling sustained internal improvement efforts
- Integration with existing frameworks, maintaining alignment with UTS methodologies
Perhaps most importantly, the City is starting to see teams embracing a continuous improvement mindset, recognising that Lean is not a one-off project but a cultural shift toward ongoing excellence.
Conclusion
By applying Lean principles to service reviews, the City of Cockburn is on the journey to successfully transition from a top-down review model to an empowered, evidence-based, and team-led improvement culture.
The partnership with CI Teams and Essemy has built not only process efficiency but also confidence and capability within the workforce, laying the foundation for long-term, sustainable improvement across local government operations.
