Gregoire hopes ‘Lean’ process to make state more efficient
Inside the Stafford Creek state prison, an inmate serving time for murder works quietly at a desk, using computer-assisted-design tools. He is putting final touches on a blueprint for a bunk bed that might be built for a university’s dorms.
Other inmates take furniture orders at one end of a long row of desks in the prison’s furniture-business office. The desks are arranged in the sequence of the decisions that have to be made, helping orders move into production within 36 to 48 hours compared with two weeks previously.