Lt. Gov. Calley Meets with Flint Business Leaders on Improving Michigan's Regulatory Efficiency; Reinventing Performance in Michigan (RPM) will improve customer response times, reduce forms by 50 percent

Contact: Melanie Brown 517-373-9280
Agency: Licensing and Regulatory Affairs

September 27, 2013 – Lt. Gov. Brian Calley today met with local business leaders at Landaal Packaging Systems in Flint to continue the dialogue on Reinventing Performance in Michigan (RPM) and seek input from businesses on Michigan’s regulatory reform. RPM is a metric-driven customer service model for all state government departments to eliminate the burdensome and unnecessary regulation hurting the state’s job providers.

“We want state government to be a partner in the success of Michigan businesses,” said Calley. “We’ve made several recent reforms that work towards creating a simpler regulatory environment, but we’re just getting started. We will continue to closely examine every aspect of our regulatory structure to remove obstacles and make it easier to do business in Michigan.”

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), in partnership with the Departments of Treasury and Environmental Quality (DEQ) is leading the effort, with the support of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).

The new customer service model will conduct LEAN processes – similar to other major companies – to eliminate delays, duplicative forms and impractical regulations, while protecting the health and safety benefits in Michigan’s regulatory oversight.

RPM has four main goals for collective improvement of customer-facing requirements and processes within state government:

• A 25 percent improvement in satisfaction with the regulatory process.
• A 50 percent improvement in customer response time.
• Ensuring 100 percent of customer-facing regulatory materials are utilized and needed.
• An overall 50 percent reduction in forms.

Landaal Packaging, the customer-focused company and full service provider of packaging products, supplies and services, is enthused about the changes happening as a result of RPM.

“Our company is about providing consistent and reliable customer service, while making our customers’ jobs easier and more cost-effective. We are pleased to see that the state shares these values and is making processes more efficient for businesses,” said Steve Landaal, President of Landaal Packaging.

RPM will be implemented in several phases within the pilot departments. The first phase, which was completed in July 2013, resulted in the following process improvements for LARA’s agencies:

• Bureau of Health Care Services (BHCS): Following form consolidation, the elimination of duplicate information fields and the creation of an online application, the BHCS now issues health professional licenses 60 percent faster. For more information, click here.
• Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC): By streamlining a formerly paper-intensive process, the MLCC now issues liquor licenses an average of 63 percent faster, allowing businesses to receive their liquor license 150 days sooner. For more information, click here.
• Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC): An ongoing process improvement aimed at automating the licensing process for new licenses and renewals is expected to enable the MPSC to issue motor carrier licenses up to 67 percent faster. For more information, click here.
• Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA): Having eliminated and consolidated forms, and reduced processing and customer response times, the UIA now processes tax reporting changes 90 percent faster and provides customers with their tax registration number 98 percent faster. For more information, click here.

The lieutenant governor will continue to meet with business owners around the state to have meaningful dialogue on how RPM is supporting their business, as well as other reforms that should be made to create an environment that fosters growth and job creation.

For more information about RPM, success stories and testimonials, please visit www.michigan.gov/rpm and follow the hashtag #RPMi on Facebook and Twitter.