Geoff Eaton attended Leading with Vision, Value and Strategy in October 2003. A number of the division’s senior staff has attended the program, including the superintendent and both assistant superintendents. Geoff was familiar with the strategic triangle and performance measurement model because it had been used for some of the division’s management reviews. (See Improving Management Systems Reviews.) In addition, the model was helpful to staff as they sought to improve the bureau’s plan review system.
The Bureau of Plans and Specifications reviews building plans to ensure compliance with the Ohio Building Code for new construction projects and major renovations, additions or alterations to existing structures. It is a unique state entity in that it has a regulatory function but is funded through fees from those it regulates.
The Bureau has jurisdiction over all state universities, state-owned projects, projects located on state property and all structures other than one-, two- or three-family dwellings that are not under a local certified building department’s jurisdiction.
The bureau’s long-standing system for building plans included a walk-in service. Customers could just show up with building plans and wait to see an examiner. This often led to an adversarial situation. For instance, a customer might not have all the pieces needed for the review and may have had a long wait because on that particular day, a flood of other people with plans to review showed up. In addition, the customer may have traveled a long distance to the office and have had the added expense of bringing the project architect for the plan review. The system resulted in unhappy customers and sometimes complaints to state legislators.
The bureau saw the need to improve the system. In the past such an operational capacity issue would have been dealt with by a management committee coming up with a solution that would have then become policy. Instead, the division used the strategic triangle model to think through implementation of change. The model led them to involve the stakeholders from the beginning. To that end, the bureau conducted a customer survey over a period of several months to help them assess the current system and to get suggestions about how to improve it. Based on that stakeholder input, the bureau designed and implemented a new plan review system.
It instituted an appointment system with improved efficiency and benefits to the customer, including guaranteed time of review with no waiting for an examiner; control of walk-in traffic and availability of staff. Customers communicate with an examiner to verify required information prior to arrival. As a result, customer satisfaction ratings have gone from 60 percent to 90 percent.
Geoff said getting stakeholder input first was a new way of doing business for the bureau but that it has resulted in an improved system that has virtually eliminated customer calls to state legislators.
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