Lean Politics??

Amazing But True

A guy by the name of Chuck Fellows is a candidate for the Michigan state senate. Among the issues that have Michigan voters agitated this year is some controversy over giving tax credits to the film industry. When asked for his thoughts on the matter, Fellows replied, "I want to see a cash flow statement and a value stream map of the process before taking a position. My ‘gut’ tells me it brings jobs and positive attention to the state." Now there are lots of consultants and employees working on lean in government, but this is the first time I have heard an elected official talking about value stream mapping a process to determine its effectiveness. It is not quite as remarkable as it might seem, however. Fellows has only been a politician for a couple of years, following 34 years in production management at Ford. Maybe we need to start sending more Ford folks to capitols.