Workforce System Transformation

Lean Solutions for Workforce Investment Systems

Time Wise Saves Maine State
Government Millions of Dollars

In 2004 Time Wise launched a project with the Maine Department of Labor to implement an extensive, agency-wide lean training program. The Department faced dual challenges – funding cuts as well as an aging workforce with more than 50 percent of its employees eligible to retire within five years. Time Wise succeeded in helping the Department accomplish more with less.

Beginning by introducing the concepts and tools of lean to more than 600 employees, the Time Wise team of specialists went on to hold more than 35 value stream mapping sessions and implemented a train-the-trainer program to ensure continuous improvement.

The bottom line result: the initiative saved the department more than $1 million and thousands of hours of labor.

Today, the lean transformation program is being adopted by other state departments helping them achieve similar savings. MORE

Lean principles are not just for manufacturers anymore. In an age of shrinking budgets and competing pressures for tax dollars, government agencies increasingly tie funding decisions to performance goals. Workforce development boards need to be able to measure their impacts in terms of skill certifications, employment, long-term job retention and wage gains. The demand for demonstrable, measurable outcomes has never been greater.

Lean training for workforce investment boards and one-stop centers can help ensure that your workforce system delivers these outcomes. By introducing a process for focusing on value and eliminating waste, lean will expand your capability to deliver the services required of you.

The Time Wise lean transformation methodology focuses on eliminating waste of time and materials and freeing employees at all levels to think of better ways to do things, supported by training and resources. It enables workforce boards and one-stop centers to provide increased levels of service and improve customer satisfaction by:

	•	Improving efficiency;
	•	Decreasing waste;
	•	Decreasing process time; and
	•	Implementing a system to achieve continuous incremental improvement.

The application of lean techniques to offices and service providers using the Time Wise Suite of Products has become a recognized – and proven – strategy for success. Workforce development leaders increasing realize the importance of becoming lean, not just to satisfy funders’ requirements but to develop internal cultures that support continuous improvement. Click here for more Lean Solutions for Workforce Investment Systems information.

Lean success stories.

New Partnerships and Employer Contacts

Successful workforce investment boards share a common feature: they recognize the fundamental importance of collaboration. In a world of constrained public funds, an ever-expanding circle of partnerships can bring new ideas, new training opportunities and new funding sources. A diversity of partners, programs and revenue sources can ensure workforce board success, especially in times of economic transformation and turbulence. Building partnerships establishes a foundation for success.

Founded to deliver services within the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, Time Wise has developed an extensive number of collaborative relationships with federal and state agencies, universities and community colleges, industry trade associations, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce and the federal national laboratories.

Through our (MEP) affiliates, we have access to a national network of more than 400 business centers throughout the U.S., linked through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), committed to providing small and medium-sized manufacturers with the help and solutions they need to succeed.

Grant Writing

One of our strengths is our ability to access and manage multiple state and federal grants and contracts to support technology transfer, Lean manufacturing, supply chain improvement, and workforce development activities at the state and national levels.

Over the past three years, TWMS has secured well over $100 Million in grants, and matching funds from state Departments of Labor and Economic Development, and from federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

These sources of funds afford TWMS and its partners, including TWMS-managed MEP Centers, the opportunity to develop new capacity, capabilities, products and services to better serve manufacturing clients; to expand client base; to become valuable partners in local, regional and national workforce and economic development strategies; and, for our MEP partners, to realize financial stability by diversifying sources of support.

The following are samples of grants and contracts written and coordinated by TWMS:

$16.5 Million for Technology Innovation - TWMS designed and wrote successful Department of Labor H-1B grants for our partners in Arizona, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Our partners in these states deployed TWMS’ unique innovation training/mentoring model to upgrade the innovation skills set of the scientific and engineering workforce of manufacturing firms. This model was based on TWMS’ experience in a Department of Commerce-funded innovation training pilot program in New England. This program led to national recognition by the Office of Technology Policy establishing TWMS as one of the nation’s premier providers of innovation training (Partners On A Mission: Federal Laboratory Practices Contributing to Economic Development. Office of Technology Policy, U.S. Department of Commerce, November 2003). Due to the innovative training approach, the Arizona and Florida programs received national achievement recognition from the Department for Labor.

Innovation Program success stories.

$2.95 Million for the Machine Operator Skills Training (MOST) Program - Funded by the Department of Labor, this grant provides for a non-traditional approach to minimizing the skills shortage in Computer-Numerically Controlled (CNC) operators in advanced machine shops in the six New England states. TWMS’ training modules leverage the simplification of CNC operation, developed as part of SupplyPoint® and the Center for Supply Chain Integration that effectively reduces the intensity and time required to train CNC operator through the normal education system. Now less experienced workers can obtain customized on-the-job CNC training emphasizing industrial best practices in quality and lean manufacturing and produce high quality machined parts for the defense and homeland security industrial base. TWMS leverages the resources of the MEP centers and One-Stop Centers in the New England states to identify and screen candidates for the non-traditional CNC skills training, and provide Lean manufacturing training to participating employers. TWMS’s mobile training units provide access to training in rural areas of the states.

M.O.S.T. Program success stories.

$5 million for Incumbent Worker Training - TWMS has assisted TWMS-managed MEP Centers in accessing over $5 million in state grants and special federal funds to support Incumbent Worker Training. In this context TWMS works with state and regional workforce boards to assist employers with incumbent worker training grants for increased productivity, retained jobs and expanded capacity. Professional staff from TWMS and the MEP Centers has worked with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS) in many sectors to ensure requirements are met to restructure supply chains to prevent the off-shoring of jobs.

$17.9 Million for Increasing Small Manufacturers’ Access to Department of Defense Supply Chains - TWMS administers and manages a defense contract, funded by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), to strengthen and expand the defense industrial supply base, improve procurability of hard-to-source parts, enhance response to surge demands and accelerate fulfillment of the DLA’s Battlefield Backorder Breakout (B3I) requirements. Achieving these objectives is accomplished by deployment of SupplyPoint® and the Center for SupplyPoint Integration. TWMS leverages the resources of the MEP centers to identify and screen candidates for the non-traditional CNC skills training, and provide Lean manufacturing training to participating employers.