Business Process Improvement in the
Economic Programs Directorate at the
U.S. Census Bureau
Deborah M. Stempowski
Shirin A. Ahmed
U.S. Census Bureau
ICES III
June 2007
Agenda
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Background
Identifying Opportunities
Business Cases for Top Ideas
Other Improvement Ideas
Future Steps for Process Improvement
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Background
• Economic Programs Directorate
measures the economy through
Censuses every 5 years, 100 current
economic and government programs,
Foreign Trade Statistics.
• In 1994, Economic Planning and
Coordination Division (EPCD) formed
to focus on corporate planning and
implementation of key processes.
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Background
• Over the next decade, significant
progress was made on corporate
generalization and standardization.
• Standard Economic Processing System
(StEPS)
• Business Register Modernization
• Economic Census Metadata-Driven
Instrument Design
• New Analyst Tools
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Formation of BPIT Team
• New Strategic Plan / Business Process
Improvement Team Formed
• Major Process Areas
– Program management
– Content planning and approval
– Sample design, selection, maintenance
– Data collection, follow-up, capture
– Respondent assistance
– Editing and tabulation
– Data review and correction
– Data dissemination and outreach
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Identifying Opportunities
• Team solicited ideas that would
produce cost savings.
• 240 ideas were received
• Ranking system was developed:
– (1) Ideas to consider
– (2) Off the table (out of scope)
– (3) Easy to implement or survey specific
– (4) Things already in progress
– (5) Nice idea but not process improvement
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Identifying Opportunities
• 60 ideas were classified ‘Ideas to
Consider’
• Team further reduced the list to 25 and
ranked those by:
– Benefits other than costs
– Cost savings
– Implementation Effort / Cost
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Top 5 Ideas
• Automated Workflow and Electronic Tracking
System
• Standardization and Generalization of
Current Survey Data Collections
• Economic Directorate Analyst Toolkit
• Improvement in Data Editing Procedures
• Improvement in BR Maintenance
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Automated Workflow and
Electronic Tracking System
• Would support all processing steps for the
2007 Economic Census at the National
Processing Center.
• Over seven million records are processed
and one million are referred for additional
review.
• Benefits would include the elimination of
paper, early identification of bottlenecks and
real time information for managers.
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Automated Workflow and
Electronic Tracking System
• Group evaluated costs, benefits, and risks of
the existing system an automated system.
• Two packages were evaluated: Oracle and
Feith.
• Based on cost, the group did not recommend
implementation.
• To take full advantage, the processes would
have to be re-engineered and that was out of
scope for 2007 / To be considered for 2012
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Standardization and Generalization
of Current Survey Data Collections
• Would provide for the development of a
generalized data collection system for current
surveys.
• Standardize letters
• Generalizing mailings and follow ups to
eliminate duplication
• Using more electronic reporting
• Adopting a company centric approach
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Standardization and Generalization
of Current Survey Data Collections
• In fiscal year 2004, directorate spent
over $9 million for data collection for 18
key programs.
• Cost savings associated with the
implementation of several
recommendations would be
approximately $1.6 million.
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Standardization and Generalization
of Current Survey Data Collections
• Development of a business portal that would
provide a one stop service center
• Would be an extension of our Business Help
Site (BHS).
• Standardizing and generalizing mailouts.
• First steps are:
– Automation of the company reporting calendar
– Secure messaging
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Economic Directorate Analytical
Toolkit
• Next generation of analyst tools.
• Common look and feel based on a
similar conceptual design.
• Tools would use common data sets that
reside in one place to facilitate easier
review and corrections.
• Common tools could be developed for
use with the census and current
surveys.
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Economic Directorate Analytical
Toolkit
• Team evaluated how analysts were
spending their time using a survey.
• Cost algorithm using average salaries
was developed.
• Directorate spending nearly $30 million
annually on analysis.
• 350 analysts were spending 60% so a
small gain in efficiency could produce
substantial savings.
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Economic Directorate Analytical
Toolkit
• Senior managers approved a technical
evaluation.
• Focused on single sign on, displaying data
from multiple sources and passing
identification and data between multiple
sources.
• Team developed a proposal over 6 months
• Due to the current budget situation, the
project did not proceed.
• Conducted exhaustive evaluation of StEPS.
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Improvement in Data Editing
Procedures
• Focused on improving efficiency by
defining measures for editing,
investigating alternatives, reducing ‘low
value’ edits and trying to reduce the
number of failures to be reviewed
manually.
• Team assessed current practices and
developed 7 recommendations.
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Improvement in Data Editing
Procedures
• Management endorsed the recommendation
to share knowledge about editing.
• Management also requested that 5 pilot
studies be done to evaluate the efficiency of
the edits for those programs.
• Studies recently completed / results under
review
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Improvement in Register
Maintenance Procedures
• Purpose is to keep the BR up to date with
information from the current surveys and
administrative records sources.
• First part is to set up a continuous information
flow so organizational changes are updated.
• Second part will to identify additional
administrative data to improve coverage and
relevancy.
• Research started on a small scale / no
concrete results as yet for business case.
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BPIT Easy Ideas
• On-line use of calendaring software.
• Use of more project management tools.
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Reforming BPIT
• Team reformed in Late 2006
• Lessons learned from Phase I showed
ideas successful at implementation:
– Ideas needed to be doable
– Resources for an idea needed to be
squeezed into current resource duties
– The process for improvement and the
results needed to be measurable.
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Approach for BPIT Phase II
• Review original list of 240 under new
criteria
• Ask staff for further ideas
• Review and select top ideas through
facilitated discussions
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Top 5 Ideas for BPIT Phase II
• Provide an effective document management
system
• Improve web-based reporting for current
surveys by evaluating Census Taker
• Publicize and increase awareness of the
business help site
• Inventory analysts’ review practices, develop
checklists and ensure review procedures /
MIS are in place
• Establish a document series to reflect key
policy and strategic decisions
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Thank You
Questions?
Sahmed@census.gov
301-763-2558
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