The Challenge
The Municipality of Maastricht, like other municipalities, was faced with the task of cutting costs. The director of the municipal Shared Service Center (SSC) believed that lean working means much greater effectiveness, leading to cost savings arising naturally in the long run. With that in mind, a lean process was followed for the ICT function within the SSC. The primary objective? A permanent improvement in customer satisfaction.
About 300 people work within the Maastricht SSC, who are divided into 11 teams. The goal was to make the entire SSC a much more lean organization. Eraneos was called in to help the organization achieve just that.
“Thanks to Eraneos, we know the lean method and we can now complete our journey. Other teams in the SSC see what is happening at IT and also want to change.”
The approach
To get started, we developed a roadmap that we knew would help the SSC become a lean organization. The transformation was carried out using the three-step approach of “show, act together, do it yourself”. This ‘change story’, as we refer to it, was planned to make the employees realize they’re embarking on a change process and not an austerity operation. This required new knowledge and therefore coaching and training.
In achieving our lean processes plan, the first phase was the preparation and deployment of a new management team. This is because we believe lean leadership plays a crucial role in this process through exemplary behavior. The commitment and dedication of a management team are indispensable in creating an open and safe working atmosphere, which is necessary for achieving an environment where the lean approach has an optimal effect and can take root. The second phase consisted of training and coaching the IT team according to these lean principles.
The 2000-year-old Maastricht is located at the foot of Sint-Pietersberg, the Netherlands. It has about 122,000 inhabitants, and measures over 60 km2. As the capital of the province of Limburg, the city has played an important role in the south of the country for many years. About 1500 people work at the town hall of Maastricht. A few years ago, the municipal council decided to merge the supporting processes into one organization with one director. This internal Shared Service Center (SSC), made up of 300 employees with positions within finance, legal affairs, HR, facility services, and ICT, is to develop into an SSC that also provides services to other municipalities in the region.
The result
In addition to the changed attitude and behavior, we introduced KPIs and reports, providing insight into the use of time. The problems surrounding planning and coordination were resolved, resulting in a highly effective IT organization where the attitude of continuous improvement has become part of the company’s genes.
Let’s create sustainable change together.
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