But Frater added that Surrey's contact centre, which also includes the staff running the county's website, is an example of how service improvements and efficiency can be combined successfully.
The findings do not unambiguously support that "green thinking is thinking lean" and consequently it cannot be argued that LPD and GPD are two sides of the same coin, meaning that LPD automatically leads to greener products or that GPD ensures improvements and efficiency in the product development process.
While process integration provides scope to decrease electricity consumption and advances in microbiology have the potential to increase enzyme yield and efficacy, the emissions embodied in biomass production are potentially more difficult to reduce: improvements will ultimately depend on yield improvements and efficiency gains.
Yet there is potential for massive improvements and efficiencies.
Councillor Andrew Williams, leader of Dacorum borough council, said: "This opportunity to work together can bring real benefits for both councils, offering savings, improvements and efficiencies for our services.
Seven months into the job, however, Mr. Ziglar is racing against the clock, trying to direct as many improvements and efficiencies as possible to stave off the agency's critics, and maintain support from Attorney General John Ashcroft and Mr. Bush.
WWiSH won two prizes at the Improvement and Efficiency awards 2013, a national competition honouring excellence in the public sector.
And the relentless creation of vast and expensive regional structures including regional assemblies, regional development agencies, as well as obscurely named regional spatial strategies and improvement and efficiency partnerships and… well, you get the idea.
The benefits, according to Improvement and Efficiency South East, which runs the portal, include letting council managers compare data on the cost of services and contracts and cutting their procurement costs by reusing templates for similar contracts.
There was a lack of mentoring and coaching in the public sector but the changing environment meant that there was as much need for improvement and efficiency there as in a commercial business.
"We intend to return to the basics of the Toyota Way," Mr. Toyoda added, referring to a production philosophy based on continuous improvement and efficiency that once made the company the envy of global manufacturers.
