Iowa DNR: Kaizen Corrective Action Process

The IDNR LUST Section conducted an intensive weeklong Kaizen event in July, 2004. Kaizen, a Japanese word meaning continuous improvement, is a business process improvement technique inspired by Toyota manufacturing. A team consisting of groundwater professionals (GWP), representatives from the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Fund program, Petroleum Marketers Mutual Insurance Company (PMMIC), owners and operators participated during the event. The event examined the current process by all parties involved and identified various delays and other issues that required further examination.

The event focused on one particular area for enhancements of the current process, that being the preparation of the Corrective Action Design Report (CADR) and implementation of corrective action. The team decided on two(2) courses of action to assist in the facilitation of sites during this stage;

A two meeting schedule that requires all parties, IDNR, GWP, funding sources (UST Fund or PMMIC) and the owner operator to participate in these meetings either via phone or in person. The first meeting will focus on narrowing the corrective action or reclassification activities that may be viable for the site and setting a schedule and milestones for implementation. The second meeting will include all of the parties again and it’s purpose will be to get an agreed upon scope of work and funding agreement and to finalize the scheduling of activities. The parties will all sign an agreement outlining the activities that will take place and when they will occur and who will pay for them. The IDNR will assist in scheduling these meetings.
The funding sources, UST Fund and PMMIC, will agree to pay $1000 to the GWP for performing a complete preliminary CADR analysis to narrow the corrective action or reclassification alternatives to be able to focus on the viability and cost effectiveness of remaining alternatives. The GWP’s agree to perform a complete and thorough screening during this process.

All participants agreed in principle to undertaking these steps and are taking this opportunity to inform all interested parties of the changes in the process. Stakeholder participation and assistance in the process will aid in moving high-risk sites to closure quicker and more cost effectively.

Below are a list of Corrective Action documents. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the .pdf files. Click on the icon at the bottom of this screen to download Acrobat Reader. The .doc files are Word 97 documents.

Documents	*.doc	*.pdf
NEW Corrective Action Evaluation (Oct. 4, 2005)
NEW Corrective Action Summary ( March 2, 2007)
Corrective Action Process
Photographs of Old Process
Process Improvement Results
Report Out (July 16, 2004)
Final Report (July, 2004)
Post Tier 2 SCR Evaluation Worksheet
Memorandum of Understanding

Contact Elaine Douskey at (515)281-8011 or elaine.douskey@dnr.state.ia.us if you have questions about this posting.