PHOENIX ‒ Leave it to the new person to mess up the first time he tries applying reflective vinyl to make a road sign.

It seems so simple as he approaches the sign-making machine: Just slide a piece of polished aluminum under a roll of vinyl, press a pedal to start applying and …

Jam.

“What did I do?” he says as his understanding supervisor swoops in to free the metal, cut through the bunched-up vinyl and clear the machine for another try.

Rookie mistake. The new person tapped the pedal too early, and this particular sign is history.

It turns out that mistakes are common as new hires learn the ropes in the Arizona Department of Transportation’s sign shop. That’s just one of the lessons ADOT Director John Halikowski will take away from his time today making and then installing road signs.

The sign operation may not have been as efficient as usual with the agency’s director temporarily on the team, but the visit will pay dividends for ADOT as a whole. This is a Gemba Walk, a continuous-improvement technique whose name comes from a Japanese term meaning going where work is done.

Gemba Walks allow leaders to not only better understand how work is performed but make employees part of examining roles and processes. Answering Governor Doug Ducey’s call for agencies to continuously improve their value to the state, this is something all ADOT leaders do, starting with the person atop the organizational chart.

After mastering the art of applying reflective vinyl, Halikowski learned how to apply red vinyl to turn his creation into a wrong-way sign. Then it was off to Interstate 10 and Avondale Boulevard with a crew to install larger wrong-way signs at that interchange.

Halikowski’s work in this phase of the Gemba Walk included placing traffic cones for safety and helping remove and hang signs. Describing the day as hot would be an understatement, and the director, clad in reflective garb and a hard hat, left with a greater appreciation of both sides of the sign operation and those who do the work.

“It was very different from what I normally do,” Halikowski said. “Everybody’s job is important and has meaning. I don’t care where you sit at ADOT, you contribute.”

His experience is now a video allowing all of ADOT to share in this Gemba Walk, with Halikowski interviewing employees and sharing what he learned, mistakes and all.

Looking at the camera as he ends his time with the sign crew along I-10, Halikowski offers some quick takeaways, starting with the importance of teamwork.

“You have to work together, you have to respect each other,” Halikowski says. “And you’ve really got to look out for your surroundings and safety.”

As part of its commitment to continuous improvement, ADOT is working to lower wait times at Motor Vehicle Division offices, reduce congestion on Phoenix-area freeways and increase the percentage of construction projects delivered on time, among other agency-wide goals. But every process in every department is part of this effort, and better understanding and analyzing the nature of work performed is essential for improvement to happen.

His day with ADOT’s sign operation was first of what will be many Gemba Walks for Halikowski, who says he hopes to instill the idea that no improvement is too small to make.

“People think of continuous improvement as this big thing, but most of these important improvements are easy to do in the workplace,” Halikowski said.

SHOW LOW – An initiative that has reduced wait times at Motor Vehicle Division offices is one of the big results of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s commitment to continuous improvement. But even finding a better way to fill a water tank used for treating roadside weeds is helping ADOT provide better service for Arizonans.

Examining their processes and how to improve them, Show Low-based maintenance workers noted that it took 45 minutes to refill the 300-gallon water tank on their truck when they were spraying for weeds. It also involved driving back to the maintenance yard for refills because the three-quarter-inch connector was designed for a garden hose.

Creating a new 2-inch connector out of PVC pipe now allows them to fill the tank in about 10 minutes. Because of the new connector, they also can also refill the tank from a water truck or fire hydrant without having to drive back the maintenance yard.

The result: less time needed to treat weeds along highways and more time available to tend to other maintenance needs in the Show Low area.

All four herbicide trucks used by maintenance crews in ADOT’s Northeastern District now have the refilling system.

It’s one more way continuous improvement is helping ADOT increase its value to Arizona by making more efficient use of time, resources and taxpayer dollars.

For more information, visit azdot.gov.

PHOENIX – Taking the road test for a driver license has long involved showing up at an Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division office early in hopes of getting a time slot to take the test that day. And often plenty of waiting.

That’s changing as of this week. Customers are now able to schedule road tests up to 30 days in advance through ServiceArizona.com for 11 office locations in the Phoenix metro area and northern Arizona. MVD will be bringing remaining offices online over the next two weeks.

The change, part of MVD’s efforts to continuously improve its customer focus, adds to online appointments launched in April for those converting a driver license or ID card to a Voluntary Travel ID.

“This new feature will provide a lot of value to our customers by allowing them to fit the test into their schedule instead of spending half a day at an office waiting to take it,” ADOT Motor Vehicle Division Director Eric Jorgensen said. “This is another step forward in achieving MVD’s vision of getting customers out of line and safely on the road.”

To schedule an appointment, visit azdot.gov/roadtestinfo, which has step-by-step instructions for arranging road tests. Customers can fill out and submit a driver license application online, get a list of documents needed to obtain a standard driver license or Voluntary Travel ID and schedule their road tests on ServiceArizona.com.

Once at the MVD office, those with appointments can check in at a kiosk rather than waiting in line at the information desk.

Applicants must meet all requirements before taking the road test, including passing the written test. Appointments are only for road tests, not the written portion of the exam.

As part of ADOT’s agency-wide commitment to continuous improvement, MVD is experimenting with other ways to reduce wait times, an effort that has led to process improvements that include printing temporary credentials at customer service windows instead of sending customers to a separate line. Customers who need to retake the driving test now go directly to the testing area instead of first waiting in line to re-verify their applications with a representative.

An experiment at MVD’s West Phoenix location has found that having customers line up rather than relying on the number-calling system dramatically reduces wait times, and that innovation is rolling out to other large MVD offices. MVD has also seen positive results in experimenting this summer with expanded office hours in the Tucson area.

“All of the process improvements, like road test appointments, help make MVD more efficient and customer-oriented,” Jorgensen said. “All aspects of MVD are on the table as we continue to experiment and innovate to improve the overall customer experience.”

For more information, please visit azdot.gov/mvd.

PHOENIX – The West Phoenix Motor Vehicle Division office is often a noisy scene when a customer lines up to check in and then takes a seat to wait for an automated system to call his or her number.

On this day, however, it’s unusually quiet and no numbers are being called. After checking in, customers line up along a path through the lobby marked by yellow tape. While one MVD employee walks down the line to make sure customers have what they need to complete their transactions, another directs people to the next available customer service window.

It would be natural to think that the automated system is broken, but in fact it’s been modified to stop audibly calling numbers so employees here can see if trying a different approach reduces wait times.

The initial results are promising: On this day, customers got in and out in 30-35 minutes on average versus the usual average time of more than an hour.

As part of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s agency-wide commitment to continuous improvement, MVD has turned the office at 51st Avenue and Indian School Road, one of its busiest, into a laboratory of sorts as it works toward a goal of reducing door-to-door times at all locations from an average of one hour to 28 minutes. Repurposing the automated number system is one of many ideas that employees will try here in the coming months to identify process improvements that can be used at all MVD offices.

What’s happening at the West Phoenix office may be the most visible way MVD is seeking to becoming more valuable to customers, but this commitment to continuous improvement applies to all facets of its operations.

“Nothing is off-limits as we and others at ADOT answer Governor Ducey’s call to operate at the speed of business,” ADOT Motor Vehicle Division Director Eric Jorgensen said. “We’re ready to experiment with any element of MVD.”

The roadmap for continuous improvement begins with planning. What played out in the lobby on this day began with brainstorming sessions in a large employee training room downstairs that’s become an innovation center for a team made up of staff from the West Phoenix and other MVD offices, MVD leadership and ADOT’s continuous improvement specialists. It’s a place to literally throw things on the wall and see what sticks, as the walls are covered with color-coded sticky notes identifying dozens of processes being studied, along with challenges and potential improvements.

“We are looking at everything from driver licenses to titles and registrations and brainstorming possible solutions to issues with those processes,” said West Phoenix MVD Office Manager Steven Parra, who in addition to his other duties oversees the experimentation here. “It’s exciting to be a part of a venture where we get to actually test the ideas we come up with to see if they work.”

The next stages of continuous improvement are doing and checking. The results of the changes to the automated number system on this day will be studied, as will those of other experiments aimed at reducing customer wait times.

Some ideas will work. Some won’t. Both are part of a process that will lead to the final step of continuous improvement: acting, in this case by identifying ways that all MVD offices can reduce customer wait times.

In addition to innovations that will come from the West Phoenix office, MVD has already made several changes through its continuous-improvement process. These include printing temporary credentials at the customer service window instead of sending customers to a separate line. Also, a customer retaking the driving test now goes directly to the testing area instead of first waiting in line to re-verify his or her application with a representative.

“Our vision to get customers out of line and safely on the road is not just something we say,” Jorgensen said. “What’s happening at our West Phoenix office isn’t the beginning or the end of our efforts to improve at MVD. It’s an expression of how committed we are about better serving our customers and becoming more efficient.”

For more information, visit azdot.gov/mvd.