Automating Seed Program field reports speeds turnaround

Victor Shaul
Seed Program

Victor Shaul, Linda Rainey and Amanda Hoisington
(front to back) take samples from a kale field,
where they found sick plants with spray damage.

Before engaging in a Lean process improvement effort, WSDA Seed Program inspectors used to record field data on paper, and keep all documentation in the form of paper. There had to be a better way. Our staff capacity was beyond maxed out, and I had a dream of getting rid of the paper. 

A couple factors aligned making it a great time to use Lean principles to analyze our process. For one, the database we use for field and lab reports – called Pure Harvest – had been moved to a different environment that made it much more powerful. Basically, anything you could think to do with it could be done. 

Second, WSDA now has process improvement expertise in our Performance and Planning Management Office. Lean facilitator Vicky Leonard stepped up to facilitate our effort. 

One way our team supports the state’s agricultural and seed industry is be assuring high quality. Field inspection reports play a key role in this and are important to verify crop variety and purity, as well as note the presence of any contaminant plants or diseases.  

Impressive improvements

We began by thoroughly mapping out our process and identifying where we wanted to be, then came up with solutions to get there. One of the most significant was to create an automated fillable form to speed data entry. 

Seed inspectors Gary Slagg, Clint Sams, Steven Moreno, and Danny Jones
(counter clockwise from left) inspect bean plants for disease.

The results of these improvements, implemented last spring, have been impressive. Many data entry points were reduced to just five steps. The average time to enter a field report dropped from 10 minutes to under 2 minutes. The average wait time for our customer companies to view their field data went from four days to one and a half days. 

Danny Jones and Clint Sams conduct
an inspection of a corn bin.

The Seed Program has embraced Lean process improvement for other aspects of our work. We have initiated and implemented a number of other efforts to automate functions in our lab and other data tasks. For example, our corn certification project modernized our 1950s “technology” of carbon-copy, triplicate forms. 

Keep calm and figure out a better way

Now, I’m not a Lean expert and the terminology is still over my head. The simple explanation is that we knew we needed to change and sat down to figure out better ways of doing our business and serving our customers. 

We’ve heard from companies that they love the improvements, and it has had a huge impact on our office staff. 

Specifically on seed data Lean improvement, I thank these project team members – Paula Moore, Amanda Rodriquez, Rich Gilbert, Danny Jones and Clint Sams, as well as our facilitator Vicky Leonard and her co-facilitator Justin Newman. 

In summary: The Seed Program has been using Lean practice to modernize and improve many of its processes and have achieved results in saved time and better customer service. Find out how.