Lt. Gov. Calley Launches Initiative to Grow Business, Increase 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 12, 2013 – Lt. Gov. Brian Calley today met with local business leaders at Dematic Corporation in Grand Rapids to discuss the positive impacts recent regulatory reforms have had on their operations and other improvements needed to make Michigan a top 10 business-friendly state. 

“After more than two years transforming state government, we have established ourselves as a leader in implementing positive changes for business,” said Calley. “However, we need a close examination of our regulatory structure to ensure our systems are efficient and friendly for our business customers. We’ve already made great strides toward improving Michigan’s regulatory climate and to accelerate this work, we’ve recently launched a new Good Government initiative, Reinventing Performance in Michigan (RPM).”

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.

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.

For companies like Dematic, a global logistics leader based in Grand Rapids, the growth of their company is often linked to their customers’ success.

“We’re pleased that the state is focused on creating an efficient customer service-based regulation model that will directly help our growth and our customers,” said John Baysore, CEO of Dematic.

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.