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Cape Coral launches lean-government events; consultant to run Kaizen workshops
Summary
The city manager introduced Lean Breakthrough’s program, saying staff and a consultant will run recurring Kaizen events to cut waste in permitting and other processes and report results quarterly.
City staff and a consultant gave a presentation on May 14 about a new lean-government program intended to reduce waste in Cape Coral’s internal processes and speed services such as permitting.
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason introduced Wayne Porreo of Lean Breakthrough, who described lean concepts — exposing waste, eliminating non-value steps and accelerating flow — and said the program emphasizes staff-led problem solving. Porreo summarized the five lean principles and listed common sources of waste (defects, inventory, processing, waiting, motion, transportation, overproduction, non-utilized talent), then explained Kaizen events: short, focused improvement workshops that include training and immediate process changes.
Porreo and staff cited past local results as examples: building-permit time reduced dramatically in earlier efforts, driveway reconstruction time cut from months to days, and firefighter recruitment time reduced in earlier projects. The city manager said the consultant model lets the city run focused, week-long events with staff participation and immediate results.
Officials said two Kaizen events are scheduled: one this week and one in two weeks focusing on permitting and purchasing, and that the city plans to run roughly two events per month and report results to council on a quarterly basis. City staff and the consultant said they will present measurable before-and-after metrics for each event, and staff committed to public reporting of outcomes.
