Cutting down asylum application queues with lean philosophy
In 2012, the Finnish Immigration Service launched a Lean project to speed up the asylum procedure.
Thanks to the Lean project, asylum application queues and waiting times have been cut down, and the quality of the work has improved. In 2012, the Finnish Immigration Service returned a decision in less than six months for 54% of all applications. Some 400 more decisions than in the previous year were made concerning applications given a material examination. ‘Applications given a material examination’ are all other applications except Dublin decisions and expired applications.
‘Lean’ is an operating philosophy for work enhancement best known in the business world. The European Refugee Fund contributed funding to the project.
Development of the asylum procedure will be continued in 2013 with the new Lean 2 project.
Swedish Migration Board pioneered Lean method
The Lean method is a production and management philosophy originally developed in the automotive industry. There are two key principles in the Lean philosophy: respect for people and continuous improvement at work. The purpose of the Lean method is to eliminate bottlenecks and overlaps in the work process and thus make the work flow more smoothly.
The Swedish Migration Board was the first Swedish government agency to adopt the model when improving its asylum procedure in 2009. Following on from the positive experiences in Sweden, the Finnish Immigration Service initiated a Lean project of its own in 2012. The Lean Centre of the Swedish Migration Board provided a two-day training course for the asylum unit in 2012.
Smoother asylum procedure through Lean philosophy
The key goal of the first Lean project was to increase the ratio of asylum decisions made to person-years.
Asylum applications are processed not only by the Finnish Immigration Service but also partly by the police and the Border Guard and, if appealed, by administrative courts, and these authorities have been involved in the development.
Part of the Lean approach involves the process being perceived as a single entity, with everyone involved knowing what the other parties are doing. If individual authorities focuses solely on their own field, they will not know how to operate in a manner that serves the next stage in the process.
In addition to developing operations in the domestic field, the Lean project also addressed international cooperation.
Successful development
The Lean project involved improving the various stages of the asylum procedure, resulting in a smoother and clearer process.
A front-loading approach was added to application processing, meaning that the aim is to assign applications efficiently to the correct queues as early in the process as possible. Thanks to this, the applications that can be resolved immediately will be processed quickly, leaving time to focus on the more difficult and time-consuming applications.
Particular attention was given to certain key areas of the asylum procedures, such as interviews and decision-making. The decision-making structure was simplified, and a unified model for asylum interviews established. This has helped speed up the asylum procedure and make it more consistent. Its quality has also improved.
Lean 2 project to pick up the baton
The Finnish Immigration Service has received further funding from the European Refugee Fund for the Lean 2 project. This continuation project will focus on improving cooperation between authorities, on drawing up an asylum manual, and on training civil servants. Another goal is to make it simpler to develop the asylum procedure further in the future.
Continuous enhancement is needed, since EUR 14,505,000 less than in the previous year has been allocated in the central government budget for the reception of asylum seekers.
Further information for the media
Pekka Martin, Project Manager, Asylum Unit,
tel. +358 71 873 0431, e-mail: firstname.lastname@migri.fi
