Lewisville unveils 'Project Smarter' to streamline city operations and employee‑led innovations

Lewisville City Manager Claire Powell on Thursday outlined 'Project Smarter,' a multi‑department initiative to use data and process redesign to reduce bureaucratic friction and improve frontline services.

Powell said the program is inward‑facing: staff identify inefficient processes and propose fixes rather than relying solely on top‑down mandates. She described three overlapping efforts—Lean Six Sigma, Peak Performance and Spark Tank—that have been folded under the Project Smarter umbrella to compare approaches and scale what works.

Ashley Carmel summarized a Lean Six Sigma review of the city’s internal grants intake and review process after an audit of 22 grants found a 68% error rate. Carmel said two root causes were late submissions (often within a day or two of an internal deadline) and skipped steps by some departments. The city replaced a manual, Word‑based intake form with an electronic LaserFiche workflow, added automated notifications for reviewers, tightened committee membership and updated reporting. Carmel said the measured error rate fell to about 25% after initial changes and that, following department training that began in February, staff reached a 0% error rate on tracked items.

Public Works staff reported a separate Lean Six Sigma project on in‑house street work orders that had a 26% duplicate‑order rate and heavy 'touch point' duplication with utility crews. The division reorganized assignments to add a second concrete crew without adding full‑time positions and reduced redundant work, which doubled capacity for concrete repairs though the overall backlog remains constrained by total crew capacity.

Nathan Fortune, an administrative analyst with the fire department, presented a quartermaster review covering uniform issuance for fire and police personnel. Fortune said standardizing intake, setting minimum inventory levels and reassigning part‑time support reduced average lead times from about 42 days toward a 21‑day target and reduced vendor‑related delays.

Jeremy Boker from building services described Pate Performance training and an 'innovation lab' that reduced permit review turnaround times: fence‑permit reviews that previously took several business days are now averaging less than one day. Library and accounts staff showed how automated data capture and video‑based onboarding (using NotebookLM and similar tools) are being used to standardize training and track workloads.

Spark Tank, an internal idea competition modeled on 'Shark Tank,' funded small, staff‑led projects such as improved surfacing at Winford Ferguson, a safety fence at Train Park, beaver mitigation for trails and other targeted capital or maintenance work that falls between operations and capital budgets.

Parks and recreation staff are also shifting routine transactions to online self‑service and plan to deploy three check‑in kiosks at the Thrive center this fall to reduce front‑desk congestion.

Police Chief Rollins described a 'year of data' initiative that provides daily call‑for‑service summaries, district crime reports and automated BOLO (be‑on‑the‑lookout) distribution to officers. Rollins said the dashboards and AI‑generated call narratives help supervisors identify spikes and allow officers to manage resources for their assigned geographic districts.

Powell said the program is intended to empower staff, embed metrics in daily operations and scale department successes across the city. Many of the individual projects are operational in nature and will produce follow‑up directives, internal audits or revised processes; staff told council they will return with updated directives or management plans when appropriate.

Council members praised the cross‑department work and asked for follow‑up reporting, including long‑term measures of backlog reduction, grant‑management audit results and timelines for the tree‑inventory management plan expected this fall.