Government, Paper, and Facsimiles
The usage rate of facsimiles (FAX) (or more accurately, the usage rate of paper) has decreased to approximately 95% compared to the 2019 baseline.
The FAX itself is a wonderful technology that is simple enough for anyone to use. Because it is so convenient and versatile, the reality of government is that we over-rely on FAX even for tasks where other technologies or methods would be more efficient.
Around April of last year, when the number of patients surged, the workflow for FAX communications from public health centers collapsed, causing problems. At the stage where the number of infected people was low, choosing FAX as a technology was not an issue, but once it exceeded a certain threshold, the technology could no longer handle the processing. We also received a great deal of criticism from the media and the citizens of Tokyo.
Taking that as a turning point, a structural reform team was launched, and we began activities not only to reduce FAX usage but also to cut down on copy paper, shift from cash to cashless payments, and move from in-person consultations to remote ones. For an article covering everything from the triggers for these changes to the current status of our improvement efforts, please see the post below by those on the front lines.
So that people don't ask: 'Does the Tokyo Metropolitan Government still use FAX?'
On the other hand, I have summarized my reflections from the perspective of management/leadership rather than the front lines. This is for reference by people in other organizations who want to reduce the excess of FAX and paper in their work and promote digitalization.
1. Goals should be ambitious, set by leaders
Front line: The initial proposal was an 80% reduction based on cumulative figures. Front-line leader: That's too low. I'd like 100%, but let's go with 98%. Front line: Please make it 90%. No matter how we calculate it, we can't reach that. Leader: Both 90% and 98% are difficult goals compared to the status quo, so the level of difficulty is the same. Since we're being ambitious anyway, let's go with 98% for a good feeling. That one word from the front-line leader was significant. While the basis for calculation is important, sometimes having the mentality to say that 'enthusiasm is the basis' is more important than the calculation itself. It's like saying, 'Where there is a will, there is a way,' but with a basis.
2. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. First, addition.
First, create an environment where you can add up the number of FAX sent and received. If you can only count once a year, you only pull the trigger for improvement once a year. By making it possible to measure as close to real-time as possible, you increase the number of opportunities to pull the trigger for improvement. People start improving when they receive stimulation. Stimulation 12 times a year makes improvement 12 times faster than stimulation once a year.
I won't be so greedy as to ask for daily, but at least make it possible to add up how many FAX each department sends and receives every month. Actually, we weren't able to do this. At first, we manually tallied all machines. Now, we tally them a bit more smartly and visualize how many sheets each department sends and receives monthly usingPower BI for now.
3. Bright visualization
Visualization is not used to hang out underperforming departments or to urge them to work harder, but to increase the evolution speed of the entire group. I feel that the 'pressure' style of scolding underperforming departments doesn't work well in government culture, and I'm not good at it either. When figures are released by department, the underperforming areas become visible. Rather than emphasizing that, we visualize the high-performing departments, verbalize the know-how behind their success, and share it with the underperforming areas. If you use numerical pressure, it becomes gloomy and won't last. Since the speed of a group's evolution is determined by the tail end, it is important to know who is in the lead to efficiently convey the know-how of the leading team to those at the back. We use quantification to visualize that, share wisdom with the rear group, and increase the evolution speed of the group.
4. To reduce sending and receiving
4-1. Work with the other party
Even if we say we don't want to use FAX, it involves another party. Unless the sender says they will stop, we cannot refuse. We politely work with the other party and ask them to stop using FAX. It's modest but important. For what remains, we save it as data without printing it out on paper when received, so it can be referenced from our own terminals. This accounts for the majority. Some departments are even deleting FAX numbers from business cards and websites.
4-2. Reduce sending
This also involves another party, so we worked with them. Since communication involves another party for both sending and receiving, it is important that the government does not act selfishly but works with the other party.
5. Measure effectiveness by time
FAX-less operations reduce FAX costs and paper costs. But that's not the point. It's the time staff (especially young ones) spend going to check for FAX, picking them up, and handing them to the person in charge. We estimate the time cost of that. It became clear that from the time they join as new graduates until they retire, they spend years of time in front of multifunction printers, including copying. This is a very sad job. We should quantify the effectiveness from the perspective of liberating humans from such work.
What's next?
People who can quickly create business tools using Kintone or Salesforce have started to appear. In the future, I want to digitize workflows to achieve more essential FAX-less and email-less operations. But it might still take some time.
Also, when interviewing various bureaus, I found that the work of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government often involves drawings for civil engineering and construction. For work involving drawings, it is often faster to print out large-format drawings and discuss them. Also, there is a strong need from the field to be able to write on materials by hand, not limited to drawings. Regarding needs such as large screens for handling drawings where everyone can write, there seems to be new technology likeSurface Hubbut I would like to see the digital industry invent new solutions.
For the past 25 years or so, as an individual, I had never used a FAX or made a copy at work, so I never thought that reducing copies and FAX would become my own job, but now that I'm doing it, it's quite profound.
When talking about FAX-less or copy-less, I was worried that it might end up feeling like multifunction printers are 'evil,' but it seems that we received many proactive suggestions from the representatives of multifunction printer manufacturers on how to be more efficient. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.
Also, the other day, the CIOs of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama gathered to hold the first Metropolitan Area CIO Conference. I heard about the ingenuity in the same field in each prefecture, and it was concrete and helpful. Governments everywhere face similar challenges and are trying to improve them, so I want to actively exchange opinions with neighboring prefectures, share success stories and 'failure teacher' stories, and increase the speed of evolution as a group across all prefectures. Some are even thinking of using AI OCR to read FAX received without printing them on paper, making FAX an important tool for information.
Going forward, while learning from the advanced cases of other local governments, the national government, and even the private sector, I would like to be reborn as an organization that is DX-ready, that is, an organization that has completed digitalization.
