Funeral services for Art Ziehl, Office of Construction and Innovative Contracting, are set for 11 a.m., Friday, Feb. 18, at the Mueller Parkway Chapel, 835 Johnson Pkwy, St. Paul, Minn. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m.

Ziehl, a 48-year Mn/DOT employee, died Jan. 11 at his home in St. Paul. He was 70 years old.

Ziehl grew up in St. Cloud, Minn., where he graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School in 1958 before serving in the United States Army. Ziehl arrived at Mn/DOT in 1962. Most recently, he worked in the Office of Construction and Innovative Contracting where he primarily worked on field final reviews.

During his early years with the department, Ziehl enjoyed golfing, chess and bowling, according to Holly Heil, Ziehl’s niece. He also was a member of the Mn/DOT Highway Vagabonds bowling team and participated in the ABC international tournament in 1965.

Ziehl is survived by one brother, three sisters, and several cousins, nieces and nephews.

Private interment will be held at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Nancy Daubenberger started her new role as state bridge engineer Feb. 16. She succeeds Duane Hill, who has served as acting State Bridge Engineer since June 2010.

“As state bridge engineer, my number one priority will be to provide leadership in the management of a safe and sustainable bridge system in Minnesota,” Daubenberger said. “I am excited about this new opportunity and look forward to collaborating with our local, federal and private partners on projects to ensure they are well planned, properly designed and completed in a timely manner, with sufficient public involvement and attention to social, economic and environmental concerns.”

Daubenberger joined the department in 1999. Most recently, she served as bridge planning and hydraulics engineer, where her responsibilities included managing and providing engineering leadership to 23 employees in Mn/DOT’s Bridge Planning and Hydraulics Section.

Daubenberger has held other leadership positions within department, including Metro District traffic program support engineer, where she provided traffic support to district project managers and area managers, and South Metro District area engineer, where she was responsible for collaborating with city, county and consulting engineers to analyze and provide solutions to transportation issues. 

Prior to joining Mn/DOT, Daubenberger worked as project engineer for a private transportation consultant firm. 

By Nick Carpenter

In Japanese, the word “Kaizen” means “change for the better.”

A team of Central Office employees recently completed a Kaizen training event aimed at helping the Office of Information &Technology Services “change for the better” by identifying areas for improvement in its current business process and designing a new, more efficient process that adds value at every step.

Through the course of the event, the team developed a significantly streamlined process that will reduce average IT project duration from 44 months to 26 months, according to John Rindal, IT Office. Several changes were made to the process to reduce project duration, including:

• Number of process stages—reduced from five to three.
• Project basis—all projects must be requested by or with the endorsement of a division director, office director or district engineer.
• Project selection—all projects are selected much earlier in process based on higher-level information and estimates.
• Decision making—one “go” or “no-go” decision point rather than multiple ones.

Division directors select Kaizen events that are a priority for the department. The events are put on as part of the Enterprise LEAN initiative—a coordinated state government program for improving the organizational performance and results in Minnesota’s state government agencies. LEAN’s main objective is to help state government work better for its customers and employees by using an approach that embraces the Six Sigma tools and total quality management philosophies, according to Mary Prescott, Mn/DOT LEAN Program director and department representative on the statewide steering committee.

“There are always ways we can improve our processes,” Prescott said. “We must continually work toward delivering higher levels of service to our constituents.”

One of LEAN’s main objectives is to shorten the time between when a product or service is requested and when it is delivered to the customer.

“Organizations with the shortest lead time are positioned to be the most credible, which makes them trustworthy through the eyes of the customer,” Prescott said. “By reducing lead time, the department will improve productivity, quality and delivery performance, while reducing inventory and capital expenses.”

LEAN characterizes all activities as either value-added or non-value-added activities. Value-added activities increase value to the customer by transforming information or materials into products and services the customer wants. Non-value-added activities do nothing for customers. They include operations that consume resources, but don’t transform the product or service.

Everything a business provides to its customers that they do not perceive as value is waste, according to Meg Tilley, LEAN Program manager. There are seven wastes that can be identified as common steps within any operation that add no value for the customer:

• Overproduction—work produced before the customer wants it; producing more work than is needed.
• Waiting—idle time created when material, information, people or equipment is not ready.
• Transportation—issue that occurs when materials or work are moved from one location to another.
• Processing/over processing—any operation or process step that does not add value.
• Inventory—more supplies, materials or work on hand than is currently needed.
• Motion—any movement of a person that does not add value is wasted motion.
• Defects—work that contains errors, rework, mistakes or lacks something that is necessary.

“By improving in these key waste areas, the department can move closer to producing exactly what the customer wants, when they want it and in the smallest possible quantities,” Prescott said.

Employees who would like to learn more about Enterprise LEAN can attend one of six day-long, introductory workshops being offered in 2011. The first workshop will be held March 30 in Owatonna. Supervisor approval is needed to participate.  

For more information on the Enterprise LEAN initiative and division directors’ IT process, visit ihub.dot.state.mn.us/lean/.

Commissioner Tom Sorel will kick-off the 2011 season of his monthly book discussion club March 2, at 1:30 P.M., in the Mn/DOT Library at Central Office.

Sorel will lead a discussion of “The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace,” by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman. The book is available in hard copy and on Kindle e-book readers in the Commissioner’s Reading Corner at the Library.

Employees interested in attending the discussion in person can sign up at ihub/readingcorner. Those who wish to participate virtually via Adobe Connect should log in as a guest no earlier than 1:15 p.m. All employees are encouraged to attend, even if they have not yet read the book, according to Qin Tang, Mn/DOT librarian.

For more information on the Commissioner’s Reading Corner, visit ihub/readingcorner. Website updates, including the addition of interviews with future discussion leaders, will occur in the coming weeks.

Employees with questions can contact Rebecca Fabunmi, special assistant to the commissioner, at 651-366-4808.

Senate Transportation Committee confirms Sorel

The Senate Transportation Committee Feb. 8 unanimously recommended Commissioner Tom Sorel’s re-appointment for full Senate approval. A confirmation date has not been set.

To listen to a recording of Sorel’s confirmation by the committee, visit stream2.video.state.mn.us/SenateAudio/cmte_trans_020811.MP3.

Employee Bulletin Board provides space for retirement announcements

Publicizing retirement parties in an organization as large as Mn/DOT can be a daunting task—especially with the recent increase in retirements due to the early retirement incentive.

To avoid an overflow of retirement party e-mail announcements coming from “Notemailer,” the Office of Human Resources is asking party organizers to use the Employee Bulletin Board to get the word out.

“More than 400 employees are retiring with the incentive, so we anticipate an increase in retirement parties, especially toward spring,” said Eric Davis, Human Resources director. “We want to make sure that anyone who wants to honor their retiring co-workers knows about planned gatherings—the bulletin board is the best way to get that information out there.”

Employees will receive a periodic e-mail reminder to check the bulletin board for the latest retirement party notifications. Only party information listed on the bulletin board will be included.

Employees planning retirement events also should refer to Chapter 1, Section B of the Mn/DOT Business Manual, which indicates that special expenses may not be used to pay for retirement parties.

Fresh updates hit the Web

Mn/DOT’s iHUB and external websites get changed a lot—new stuff goes up, old stuff comes down. The Office of Communication’s Webteam is in charge of making sure the “new stuff” that is added communicates updated information that is easily accessible and relevant to all employees. Here are a few recent additions to the Web:

• The department’s 2011 Legislative Session website includes weekly legislative summaries for 2011 as well as a link to the status of current transportation-related bills and committee schedules.
• The Congressional Briefing website has been updated for 2011. The site is designed to help inform Minnesota’s U.S. Representatives, U.S. Senators and their staffs about what’s going on in all eight Mn/DOT districts. While this is not a comprehensive list of current projects, it does highlight the major efforts taking place in each district.
• The Historic Bridges in Minnesota website is a compendium of information about old bridges. The site also features historic images of mystery bridges from around the state that the Bridge Office needs help identifying.
• Emergency Evacuation Floor Plans for Central Office are now available on iHUB. Employees can find out who can help in case of emergency, where the nearest fire extinguisher is and how to escape the building on a beautiful Friday afternoon without alerting their boss.