RNR Consulting was hired by the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources (DWR) to assist in implementing lean techniques and methodology to further improve the existing processes in the Backflow department within the Meter Division. Major goals of the project were to improve customer compliance, increase effective utilization of existing staffing, maximize utilization of existing systems and explore potential revenue generation options.

 Our lean approach included the following activities: interviewing employees, shadowing daily activities of individuals, following Step-by-Step current systems utilization (eg: XC2, SAP…), identifying bottlenecks and waste in current processes, conducting Data Comparison Analysis between SAP and XC2, and researching Backflow programs scenarios in other utilities. The outcome of our efforts resulted in:

* Fusing five distinct processes into one streamlined process
* Decreasing process activities from 115 steps to 52 steps
* Decreasing the amount of systems involved in the process
* Automating the process in the system:
* Reducing Backflow administration costs by 66%
* Reducing personnel required for the process by 75%
* Realizing potential revenues by outsourcing parts of the backflow program (Testing)
* Increasing controls over the process to ensure compliance requirements are met.