What would be the most important outcome if a given ” Government” decided to adopt the ” Lean ” approach ?
Perhaps……..
- Higher efficiency therefore better services??
- Lower operational costs therefore lower taxes??
- More accountability therefore better politicians??
- More internal focus therefore less external distractions??
What would be your guess?
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Interesting thought!
Since lean is about reducing waste (muda), I don’t think it would be possible given all the politics and bureaucracy.
Deborah Jankiewicz
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
What a LOVEl idea for implementation for any GOVERNMENT. Improvement in productivity, efficiency, reducing redundancies would be a win win. Unfortunately, I agree with Deborah and suspect it is about increasing infrastructures.
Debra Fowler
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Hi Deborah and Debra
Yeah, you both are right !
The ” sad ” part about adopting practices that would reduce waste, reduce cost, enhance service and become more efficient is the fact that most our politicians would lose their jobs.
The challenge for professionals (and citizens in general) is to raise the awareness and keep paddling the boat towards global improvements.
All the best
Edison Reis
ereis@ qualityassurancemanagement.com
http://www.qualityassurancemanagement.com
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Lean Six Sigma when you choose the right project and apply correctly will produce the results cited by you. Government should be no exception. Although I have to say it takes a lot more to change the government than the private sector.
Eric Tzeng
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erictzeng
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Scary,
there would be so many people displaced and not enough positions to hide them. On a positive note that would be one phenomenal country with an ability to change the landscape at will.
Regards
Pat
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I strongly believe that one of the most important outcome should be ” Fast and Effective Connection system between the given government and its customers”
Horea Mizgan
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/a62/b79
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I agree with Horea’s comment…Eliminated waste and delays from integrated systems and / or service delivery to tax payers would create HUGE savings. While it would displace people, the savings could immediately be distributed to new programs.
While this is nice to think about, I don’t think our government or country would ever be patient enough for LEAN. However, I certainly hope Obama or McCain listen to quality professionals when considering how to approach slashing gov’t waste. I mean even a modified value added analysis of each Govt program would be a great start.
I think I’ll email Obama about this.
Dan Whittaker
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Like any improvement effort, the most important outcome in Lean projects is up to the customer to define, based on what problems the government customers are experiencing - whether those customers are internal to the government body or external to it - citizens wanting to find out how to use a government service, for example.
That said, Lean concentrates on eliminating any of the forms of waste by mapping the value stream and determining where non-value added activities occur.
In most interactions with governments, whether local, state or federal, the amount of different contacts one must make to simply speak with the right person or department is often a big problem. I would guess that reduction of that time and the number of steps it takes to obtain the correct government contact would be high on the list.
Mike Darrish
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
In India, there will be significant rise in unemployment!!!
Hence it is not likely.
However, Govt of Gujarat is moving in the direction.
It will be worth seeing the outcome.
Vidyut Bapat
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
C. Northcotte Parkinson states that, as a corollary to his (Parkinson’s) law, governments will spend all the taxes they can get their hands on, and then some more. The only way to reduce government spending is by reducing taxes, which seems to be less than probable.
Interestingly enough, that’s what King Utopus accomplished in Thomas More’s Utopia. Less taxes, and government officials who actually do useful work.
Francisco Laborde
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
In Edmonton, Alberta Canada , there will be significant rise in unemployment Howver it would be great as 75 % of the local goverment work force will retire within the next 5 years
Sherif Labib
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:20 pm
They should focus on what they do best - infrastructure, defense of the country, the necessary courts and standards. The government should out of those areas in which it is not designed / that are not its mission. It should also seek to be more efficient in its core areas, so that it does not require so much money to do its job.
Tamara Wilhite
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Lean begins and ends with THE CUSTOMER. The most important outcome of a “Lean Government” initiative would be a population that felt listened to, valued, and saw its government aligned top to bottom, sideways to improve flow, delivery, innovation.
Jerry Linnins
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Never happen….sad, but true….too many people working on “Cost plus 10% profit” government programs which simply just don’t lend themselves to working on an effort to eliminate waste and working efficiently….
Aidan Foley
November 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am
In the city of Utrecht, The Netherlands we are moving towards Lean by improving several production processes, also by using ICT. Because of financing the costs, this quality-improvement project for clients tends towards an efficiency project for managers. Makes it ‘muddy’. Hence no retirement!
Lars Schotel
November 4th, 2008 at 8:47 am
No fixed answers there as the target changes depending on the “level” of government you are looking at.
If the application of Lean approach is more or less straight forward when looking at the services component of a government, the components dedicated to development may also leverage a Lean approach when properly set-up.
Depending on the Law defining the government you may find that some functions are assigned to territorial levels -I have seen no process approach in Public Law yet- the smaller the covered territory more it is linked to the idea of service. Don’t take it as fixed rules as there are very clear examples where this is not the case.
A quick and dirty classification to start a serious conversation about Lean application in Governments may be:
* Development oriented organizations
* Service oriented organizations
* Regulatory and sustain of establishment organizations
We can find examples for mixed requirements in this classification, but each one has a specific set of drivers, objectives and goals.
If you want to go into a deep change, prepare yourself for a project well beyond the technical side of Lean, but involving sociology, law, politics, and tons of mobilization skills.
A last word : Do not miss that depending on the project you may well be targeting to change not a government process but the culture of society. Not piece of cake but do-able.
Leopoldo Araujo
November 4th, 2008 at 8:49 am
n Denmark, the government is facing a challenge with finding people for governmental positions. This problem is expected to increase in future, due to a decreasing workforce (population ab-normality). Hence, the government has created an advisory body called KL (Kommunernes Landsforening). Amongst other things, this body has a host of Lean and Process consultants that service governmental institutions on demand. The principle of pull. KL are in direct competition with private Lean consultants. This has been going on for some years.
Nicolai van Wylich-Muxoll
November 4th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Edison - what a great idea!
As Mike pointed out, Lean is all about the customer. This would be a radical shift for the government. As the customer my experience has been the exact opposite - it’s all about the employee.
I think a Lean government (along with a little Design for Six Sigma) would be unbelievably beneficial to the American people. There’s lot of low hanging fruit there that would be cost justified almost immediately.
Of course there would be a lot of resistance requiring significant buy-in from all levels: CAP (change acceleration process) and just plain old what’s-in-it-for-me.
Rick Bettencourt
November 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Thanks for your feedback. It is amazing that when we start puzzling all the answers the content becomes very powerful for all of us.
Returning to the topic, Wouldn’t be great if the government (all levels) would use it ?
If works in public and private sectors why not explore it in governments ? (wide statement I know but I am an optimistic kinda guy)
Considering that the government machine is called “non profit” shouldn’t be the normal approach to take ?
Reduce waste and become more efficient to reduce our taxes ?
We know that there are some worldwide isolated cases (states,provinces and cities) but wouldn’t be great to call them as the norm other than exceptions?
All the best and keep up the good work
Edison Reis
November 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
It is being phased in quickly in the U.S. Government. Of course, there are the Military programs, I was working AFSO21 with the Air Force, and the other branches also have their Lean Six-Sigma programs. Now I am looking at Lean work with HUD, and most other branches are putting on Lean Help. The state and city governments are also taking notice. I am sorry to hear so many other countries chime in that they would lay off workers in government, I would think there was plenty for all to do to increase the quality and availability of services to their citizens. For anyone interested there is a Citizen’s for a Lean Government Group at:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1023657
Lester Sutherland
November 5th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Great question–I have to admit there have been days when I’ve thought it would be a blast to take a team of Kaizen Blitz facilitators into the fed and go wild–talk about low hanging fruit!
As for the recent question about whether Lean leads to reduction in staffing levels, there are a couple of ways to answer that. This often occurs, but the resulting increase in productivity should then lead to more competitive, growing economies/companies. There could be some localized, short term, painful adjustments as free enterprise does its thing, but the results should pay off for all. I’ve never led a kaizen project that resulted in layoffs, but I have led projects that resulted in staffing reductions that were handled through normal attrition or shifting labor to growing businesses. I’ve always tried to keep Lean improvement separate from business decisions about staffing levels.
Bob Andrews
November 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
If it’s lean then the outcome should always be focused on delivering what the customer wants measured by quality cost and delivery. The customer is king whether you are in government of the private sector
Andy Hobson
November 5th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
LEAN / 6 Sigma for government does the same as for any organization. P (price or costs), Q (quality aspects) and D (Delivery) from perspective of customer or citizen will improve. We studied several issues for local / departmental governments: More police on the street due to better organized admin, better service to farmers requesting subsidies (faster), fewer people needed to do the same. Key: Make it work from the “shop floor” and celebrate one success at the time.
Ted Twaalfhoven
November 5th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
At Fort Campbell, KY there is currently an initiative to adopt Lean principles as well Six Sigma programs. There are individuals that have been given the assignment within the IT and Engineering areas to focus on these principles. Obviously, this is not an initiative of Obama rather GWB.
Leah Whitus
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Edison- to start, lower headcount which would lead to a higher SENSE OF URGENCY and increased accountability.
This is a great idea Edison, I think many others believe likewise…it’s getting it started and past the first couple of phases without being mired in the muck which is clearly the issue. I think everyone wants to be and believes they can be ‘lean practitioners’…to use a term. But when the first few changes that are necessary hit, that’s when people start squealing.
True leadership is needed. Can it be done? Certainly, but not w/o true leadership and cultural transformation…not the political tagline “change”…but left to right, top to bottom, front to back, port to starboard, front to aft cultural transformation.
Thanks for a great thought provooker Edison.
Boom
November 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
In Pakistan it has a great potential and there is lot to do. There are obvious redudncies which will not only save costs but also make it user friendly for the common citizens. Obviously the savings should results in lower taxes and more development project leading to more employment opportunities .
A word of caution for application in government . Even being lean does not mean the spending for the right priorities. The processes may be efficient and effective but the spending may still being made on the wrong priorities due to political reasons. To me lean means swift cutting of the right forest.
Ashraf Usman
November 6th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Another great question! If we are talking “Lean” as in ‘applying systems thinking principles at all levels’ then we have a different answer to using Lean as ‘improving some processes end-to-end’. The latter is what is currently happening here and, while it is having some benefits, is also causing some issues.
For example, why make waste collection processes more ‘lean’ if the layers behind the front-line are still too full of target mentality and waste? It will increase efficiency somewhat, but not necessarily effectiveness. This may explain why in the UK Council services are improving - but the customer perception remains the same. An increase in expectations (Kano), but, perhaps, also a suggestion that ‘Lean’ is too focused on process-by-process work - and not necessarily the right processes!
In my view, the systemic application of ‘Lean Thinking’ (in the sense of Deming and the Japanese masters) has one HUGE benefit that encompasses and goes far beyond even the four (albeit excellent) suggestions in your question. The biggest benefit if “Government” at all levels were to use “Lean Thinking” (not just tools) would be Joy! The Joy of being a citizen who is heard and whose services match his/ her needs. AND the Joy of being a worker in the system and getting the great satisfaction of both doing the right thing AND doing it well. The consequences for national pride (sic morale) would be phenomenal.
If we got to the point where such thinking became inter-governmental and we were truly focussing on the win-wins of Systems Thinking - that truly would be a brave new world!
Best wishes,
Emma
November 6th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Successful Lean implementations tended to view cost reduction as a secondary rather than a primary objective.
From a recruitment point: Headcount reduction is seen as a primary Lean objective.
Tangible Lean outcomes include improvement in customer waiting time, service performance, processing times, customer flow as well as bringing a service up to standard and being able to achieve more for less.
Intangible Lean outcomes included a better understanding of process, joined-up working, the whole system, performance measurement, a support for continuous improvement, increased staff satisfaction and confidence, and an ability to embed a continuous improvement culture.
Keith Speres
November 6th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hello Dear,
In my opinion, all the four points that you have mentioned will be achievable. Further to these, the Government will stick to its fundamentals of Good,clean and efficient Governance.
Regards
Viney
November 6th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
- Higher efficiency therefore better services?? no if not continious: put customer in the picture, but stress the urgency of change management: walk the talk
- Lower operational costs therefore lower taxes?? People esteem that such an excercise cost money in their lifetime also for politicians it is not done, as this has few press exposure - must have an added service somewhere… towards a urgent need or project… combine those exercise
- More accountability therefore better politicians?? That could be a goal for better Government, we had Copernicus rulings - maybe also because government is becoming more involved in financial markets they are accountable and will be judged on good management and CPI…
- More internal focus therefore less external distractions?? Better would be, be more agile in this changing world and due to this internal focus and process excellence, less failures in this change cycle.
Hope this helps
Mario Santy
Belgium
November 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
In 2004 I led the first deployment of Lean Six Sigma to the US Navy, a year later, the US ARMY, etc…
So without guessing here are some just some of the high level benefit areas:
- War Fighter Readiness - this includes numerous metrics that measure the speed at which the military can respond to a threat.
- Employee Efficiency at all levels (Most targets achieved a Process Cycle Time Efficiency of ~10% (Value Add Time Divided by Process Lead Time), which was over a 50% increase in first round projects). This included a reduction of forces (both Civilian and Military) of 1/3rd where the Lean Six Sigma effort made it possible for the remaining resources to execute increased services and work those processes faster and with better quality.
- Reduction in Process Lead Time which on average improved between 20 and 80% faster. Average Process Lead Time = Work-in-Process Divided by Process Throughput)
- Lower product and service costs - The government had already targeted a 1/3 rd reduction on overall government costs between Oct. 2005 and Oct. 2008, but this does not result in a tax break (that comes from Congress) but instead to leverage the savings to increase the value in the various government initiatives.
- Lean Six Sigma Metrics - these are now built into all Federal Contrators, requiring all vendors supporting the government to incorporate in the reporting results of those contracts.
- Training - the first 3 years was very training focused with targets of 1% of the Federal business Units having full time Black Belts executing Projects, all leaders certified at Champion/Sponsor level, and 6% of the workforce Green Belt Certified.
There are thousand of process metrics that focused on Speed, Quality, Cost, and Risk Reduction metrics that had both indirect productivity as well as direct $ savings.
Other countries that followed the US Government Lean Six Six Sigma Initiatives include: United Kingdon, Austrialia, and Saudi Arabia while numerous countries are using at smaller levels.
Hope that helps,
Warm Regards,
Steven Bonacorsi, VP/Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
November 6th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
My guess would be all of the above. However, it will take more than an approach or process to make things more efficient. My opinion is that it is a question of incentives. Currently government has an incentive to utilize their whole budget within a given fiscal year. Until this changes the desired efficiencies will not result.
John Sedivy
November 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
In the Public Sector there have been very few times where Lean has lead to greater openness or cooperation. Organizations adopt Lean out of pure self interest. Unable to get more “free” public money they turn to trying to be more efficient so they can fund more of their internal agendas, not so they will have a greater surplus to share with others or so that they can reduce their budget request the following years. The Public does benefit but only indirectly over the longer term through more effective efficient organizations. Think of the Postal services or more recently militaries. Fewer rate hikes and better benefits for postal carriers, not rate reductions or donations to social security, and a better tooth to tail ratio and more spy satellites, not a smaller or cheaper Air Force.
This plus 2 bucks still won’t buy a Starbucks, I could be wrong
William Olmstead
November 6th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
More Accountability. This is perhaps the System does not help a citizen if some one is kidnapped, if any terror attacks etc. A comment of sympathy or a cash offer do not help the emotions and secured living.
As a Indian Citizen I am upset about the HIZAKs and Terror attacks.
Why should a Human live in unsecured system. A forced Threatned living.
Dont you feel Accountability will lead to other functions and make a efficient and secured and organised Governance.
Srikanth Gnana
November 6th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
More accountability therefore higher ethics…
More true hard work (what a concept for a politician!) therefore more actual commitment to the people and less room for inflated egos…
And eventually, maybe a return to true basic society VALUES?!!!
Didier Jupillat
November 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
The government of Mauritius adopted Kaizen about 5 years ago, which masaaki Imai himself assisted with. They even tackled the presidents office with a 5S campaign!
The title of the campaign was “Muda Free Mauritius” and they even taught the 7 wastes at all schools…there is a lesson here!
Richard Steel
November 7th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
OK, group, I’ve been reading this thread with interest. I have an opportunity to work with a city government agency that manages parks (from a policy perspective, not operations). Lots of interesting stuff here that I’ve never encountered elsewhere in mfg. or trans. work. The most glaring difference is that at least this gov’t agency is “not driven by profit”. And every employee in the operation is there because they have a passion for their work: people who want to minimize the imprint of humanity on wildlife, plants, eco-systems in general.
A case in point that highlights this is the question, “where do we place a new trail where people can walk their dogs on a leash?” Everbody agreed that next to the road was the best from every conservation approach. Sounds great except that the people, those who actually own the parks, consider that option the least attractive.
My take is that there’s nothing really fundamentally different in the applicaiton of LSS to government (management) other than a change in focus as to what’s important to the Customer. Lots of opportunity here for decision-making theory (for transparency), conflict resolution and minimizing process waste. With regard to services and operations, however, I don’t see much difference.
Cheers,
Bruce Sindahl
November 8th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Lean has to be answered in the context of government’s products and services. The first impact is that explicit Service Level targets will be reached, or else leading indicators of problems affecting those targets will be revealed earlier. The impact is that government will be more responsive, and will take appropriate action sooner. This will actually shrink the public sector as new efficiencies can be found, and increase the sense of partnership. Increased technology and automation will be adopted, so that services are more predictable. Political choice will shift to emphasize which services are critical, and which are non-essential, depending on the mandate from the voters. Taxes will still remain high, but surplus capital can be re-invested to increase the value delivered. Just my 2 cents.
Dan Zrymiak
November 8th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
It is absolutely amazing what we can achieve and learn when we share our thoughts !
Thank you all for participating !
If you have a question that you would like to put forward please let us know.
Edison Reis
http://www.qualityassurancemanagement.com
November 9th, 2008 at 1:00 am
I think, that “Lean” approach without understending doesn’t work - you can send people from Government to a training.
The next element is that all should want to impelment the “Lean” and there could be the first big problem: will all people want implement it - I’m not sure, but maybe I’m wrong?
Then you need standards, prepared according to “Lean” and introduced by all levels of “Government” - it should be an evolution, and not revolution - the last one could bring more problems, than to be beneficial for a folk - because this issue should be the target and not only changes.
Best regards
Slawomir Suski
November 9th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I agree to an extent with Mr. Bonacorsi, except I worry about the focus on the military instead of the Gov’t at large, the focus on training instead of implementation, and the forcing of “Lean Six Sigma” metrics (kind of an oxymoron don’t you think?). Mr. Bonacorsi’s approach smacks of just the newest of initiatives in the US Gov’t that has been talking efficiency for well over thirty years. The good results being talked are miniscule compared to the opportunity.
The best outcomes would be your first - better services while consuming less resource. The lower operational costs would not lead to lower taxes in this generation in the US - they would allow for funding of all the unfunded promises such as social security and the national debt. That is still a good outcome for the sustainability of our society.
The other outcome would be a serious Value Added Analysis wold cause most government agencies to dramatically reduce the things they do and many would cease to exist.
A value added analysis of all funding bill coming from the US Congress would be a fun thing to undertake - it would open a lot of eyes.
Gary Cone
November 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
The military is part of the government and I have been impressed with their deployment of CI (Lean, Six Sigma etc.). I believe the budget is/was $700 million for the Navy. I know the consulting companies are chasing the $ in a big way.
The end result I hope would be a more effective and efficient fighting force.
If the rest of the government went after this with the same dynamic as the armed forces we might wind up solving cash flow problems to fund social security, health care ….. so much more.
One can only hope.
Cheers,
Sanjay
November 11th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Many Governments have started to apply Lean in their organisation - the civil service. There are many transactional processes within for example taxation, customs, immigration, social benefit claims and administration. there have been dramatic improvements in performance - quality and throughput rates/lead times however a lot of these initiatives struggle to be sustained over the long term.
Neil Trivedi
November 11th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I think there would be a much greater efficiency and, long term, the government and country would become much more successful.
Edward Carrick
November 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am
It is absolutely amazing that amount of answers, experiences and feedbacks around time topic.
It is clear to us that the government is ineed a great candidate to use the Lean principals and related tools.
All the best
Edison Reis
ereis@qualityassurancemanagement.com
http://www.qualityassurancemanagement.com
November 12th, 2008 at 8:18 am
It would be a wonderful thing but it will never happen because government is just the opposite of Lean Thinking… Most of the positions in the government workforce would no longer be necessary and the unions would not like that one little bit. Someone should tell President Obama that “lean” is the change he touts about… not a chance.
Jackie Harms
November 12th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
You could probably launch a political party at the state level and get some traction. Your platform would be created naturally by following lean practices in preparation. Depending on the state there would be a good number of people already educated and open to supporting such an initiative. given the horrible state of politics and the economy you can bet people will be looking for rational options in the near future.
Grant Elder
November 15th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
First of all, it is anti-bureaucratic, thus unless driven from above would never come to pass.
As to the answer you request it is what we all seek, lower taxes.
James Coburn
November 16th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Hi Edison
The UK MOD have employed lean type processes to focus their efforts on the key activities for each unit.
To be fair, the whole process has been a thinly veiled attempt to reduce manpower and costs. In principle this should be a good thing to aim for.
However, I consider Armed Forces to be an insurance policy, called on when the Government requires certain tasks to be completed.
By ‘leaning’ the MOD, much of the excess capacity is being removed. Outsourcing means that non-value added tasks are being done by external agencies rather than service men and women. This is clearly cheaper, but with 3 impacts:
1. There are less UK billets that service people can fill. UK billets allow staff to work ‘normal’ hours and spend time with their families in the evening and weekends.
2. Outsourcing requires the contract to be written, agreed, funded and managed with an impact on contract management staff.
3. Outsourcing staff only do their contracted role. A service person can be used anywhere for any task and without the usual work-life constraints.
Reduction of military staff to a minimum makes it difficult to spare people for training, illness, recreation and personal development. It also signficantly reduces the possibility of surging or giving managers the level of contingency that may be required in the event of an unforeseen need.
Lean focuses people and processes on value streams considered. If the manpower and processes are tailored to those streams then there is a signficant impact on the flexiility to fulfil other additional value streams.
If Government adopt Lean then only those value streams assessed will be resourced and no contingency catered for. This I think is a signficant short fall.
Lean needs to be applied carefully in the Government context.
As I stated above, Armed Forces are an insurance policy. I think Lean is allowing us to pay fo a 3rd party only policy when we actually want fully comprehensive cover.
Hope this is a useful perspective.
Regards
Martin
November 29th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Thank you so much all colleagues for this huge feedback !
After carefully reading all comments and experiences it becomes clear that is possible and would be beneficial to pursue Lean Thinking within government agencies despite the difficulties that we may encounter.
All the best as always
Edison Reis
http://www.QualityAssuranceManagement.com
December 1st, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I found your site on Google and read a few of your other entires. Nice Stuff. I’m looking forward to reading more from you.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks
December 1st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
You know, I have to tell you, I really enjoy this blog and the insight from everyone who participates. I find it to be refreshing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I posted it.