Ventura County Public Works Agency is full of individuals dedicated to excellence and committed  to pushing the agency forward through innovation. Derrick Wilson began his journey at Water and Sanitation and moved to lead Strategic Management for Central Services in 2019, helping VCPWA enhance job effectiveness training, continuous process improvement and more. Most recently, Derrick completed the Lean Six Sigma Specialization program offered by UCLA Extension and has obtained training as a Black Belt. Way to go Derrick!

The Lean Six Sigma Specialization offered by UCLA Extension is comprised of four courses and includes the subjects of strategic planning, measuring performance, team development and understanding the customer. By employing Lean Six Sigma, VCPWA can better develop and deliver quality products and services in a more efficient way to both meet and exceed customer expectations. A Black Belt, like Derrick’s, is a role associated with an individual who trains and mentors other facilitators, known as Green Belts, and leads improvement projects using specific methodologies such as define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.

For those who don’t know, Lean is a term developed by Toyota with the focus of a relentless pursuit of removing waste from business processes. The term Sigma is a statistical term that measures how far a process deviates from perfection. Combining these two methods provides a means to effectively drive sustained breakthrough improvement. Lean Six Sigma has been in place within the County for over a decade and VCPWA not only embraces continuous process improvement but in many ways leads the pack.

In 2019 VCPWA created the Strategic Management division, led by Derrick Wilson, within the Central Services to specifically promote, track, and report the agency’s performance and to lead initiatives which enhance our customer experience, improve internal operations, increase employee engagement and efficient use of resources.  Thank you for your Dedication to INNOVATION and EXCELLENCE, Derrick.