1. Value Stream Mapping the Delaware Air Quality Permitting Process
Bob Zimmerman
State-EPA Symposium on Environmental Innovation and Results
January 23-25, 2006

2. Delaware Value Stream Mapping Project Partners
Delaware Economic Development Office
Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership
DNREC Office of the Secretary
DAWM Air Quality Management
General Motors
Daimler Chrysler
CIBA Specialty Chemicals
ILC Dover, Inc.
PPG Industries
DuPont

3. Value Stream Mapping Process Objectives
Improve the permitting process without weakening regulatory requirements.
Capture the experience of those who have to meet the regulatory requirements.
Process redesign activity would be transparent to the public and the regulated community.

4. Value Stream Mapping Process
Why?
Listening to voice of customer
DEDO report on industry clusters to Governor - early 2005
DNREC asked to identify specific process - AQ construction permitting selected
Stakeholders (Public/ Industry/ DNREC)
Improve permitting process
Reduce processing time/effort
Create greater business certainty
Optimize DNREC’s resources for other functions
Improve environmental quality

5. Perspectives from Delaware’s Business Community
Cost issues due to:
Cumbersome and slow permitting process
No allowance for “green companies” that are proactive and stay in compliance

6. Delaware Value Stream Mapping
For public transparency we created a web page for the DNREC/ DEDO Value Stream Mapping project:
All materials are available on the web page

7. History DNREC / DEDO Value Stream Mapping Process
June 05: Initial Scoping Meeting
July 05: Planning Session
Aug 05: 3 Day Training / Action Plan
Sept 05: 30 Day – Progress/ Plan Review
Oct 05: 60 Day – Progress/ Plan Review
Nov 05: 90 Day – Progress/ Plan Review
Jan ’06: 120 Day – Progress/ Plan Review

8. Mapping the Current State
Created the goal for the session
Defined what was in scope and out of scope
Mapped the current state of the Air Quality Construction Permitting Process.

9. Goal for VSM Project
Develop and implement an air permitting process that results in expeditious issuance of environmentally sound, operationally flexible and achievable permits in a timeframe not to exceed 90 days and ensure requirements are identified clearly prior to submittal reducing re-work in the process to 50%

10. In Scope Out of Scope • Interpretation of DNREC Rules,
Policies, & Guidance Documents
• Internal Organizational Structure
• Internal Permit Process and Timing
• Applicant Internal Process & Timing
• Electronic Submittals
• Application Content and Format
• Permit and Technical Memo Format
• Special Condition Content
• Communication (Internal/External)
Out of Scope
• EPA Regulations
• Interpretation of EPA Rules, Policies, and Guidance Documents
• Modifying Existing DNREC Rules
• Additional Resources
• Permit Appeal Process
• New Software/Computer Systems
• Mandated Public Participation
Requirements
• Permits Involving Enforcement
Action
• Public Hearing Process/Officer

11. I know this is really small, I will provide handouts of this for each participant.

12. Mapping the Current State
Lessons learned:
Majority of process problems stem from the permit applications!
First pass quality yield was < 1%
Assuming perfect customer input, first pass quality yield was 18%
Re-work was nearly 100%!
Construction permits issued within 180 days

13. Mapping the Current State
Identified opportunities for improvement called “Kaizen Bursts.”
“Kaizen” are rapid improvement processes focused on eliminating waste, improving productivity, and achieving continual improvement.
“Kaizen Bursts” were used to help create the Future State.

14. Again, I will pass out handouts for people to read

15. Creating the Future State
Defined our future state – where we wanted to be in one year:
Internal first pass quality yield - 80%
Customer information quality - 80%
Administrative completeness - 100%
Technical completeness - 80%
Re-work less than 50%
Construction permit issued within 90 days

16. I will pass out handouts for people to read

17. Achieving Our Future State
Identified and scheduled specific tasks to accomplish. These tasks included:
create visual tracking boards;
implement a First-In-First-Out system;
create permitting checklists;
seek applicant feedback;
modify our applications to make them more user friendly;
modify application review process; and
collecting new performance metrics.

18. Visual Tracking Board

19. Project Highlights
Surveyed applicants to discuss why they submitted incomplete applications and learned important information.
Reduced our permitting backlog from 199 AQ construction permits on 8/24/2005 to 48 on 1/11/2006.
Implemented a First-In-First-Out system.
Now issuing AQ construction permits within 61 days of receiving a complete application
I’ll update the backlog progress for this week before I send this to DEMEP.

20. What We Learned from Applicants
Difficult to know which form to complete
Difficult to know where and how to obtain information that is requested
Difficult to know which questions to answer and which ones are not applicable
Applicants would like help with engineering calculations
Applicants would like to know why specific information is requested

21. Important Process Improvements
Future State includes three important changes to the permitting process:
Pre-Submittal Meeting
Administratively Complete Gate
Technically Complete Gate

22. DNREC Value Stream Mapping Air Permitting Process
Cross Functional Communications
Top Down Commitment
PLUS:
Employee Involvement
Customer Focus and Communications
First Time Quality
Partnership Support
Future
State
SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER &
NOVEMBER 05’
Reduced Waste in:
MINUS:
Motion
Waiting
Processing
Rework
Lead time
Current
State
Created a permitting process that is environmentally sound, operationally flexible and achievable.

23. Next Steps
We are still working on some of the action items required to implement the process.
We are seeking volunteers (especially our permittees) to participate in the permit application redesign.
We are reviewing/revising the metrics for permit processing.

24. Schedule Feb 06 - Complete drafts of all VSM action items
Mar-April 06 - Train regulated community on new processes and documentation
May-June 06 – Debug new processes
July 06 – complete full implementation of new processes

25. For more information: Robert J. Zimmerman
Office of the Secretary, Director of External Affairs
Ali Mirzakhalili
Program Administrator, Air Quality Management
Amy Mann
Environmental Engineer III, AQM

26. Lessons Learned by Nebraska, Michigan and Delaware
Worth the effort
Carefully select the situation or process
There is a lot more waste than you realize
Eliminating waste doesn’t mean eliminating people
Goal-setting is critical
Communications (before, during and after)
Active and visible management support
Be prepared for resource issues
Follow- thru essential to keep on track