Continuous Improvement Unit
The Continuous Improvement Unit (CIU) is led by Renea Chandler and implements JSO's philosophy of constantly reviewing our professional environment for opportunities to eliminate waste, improve the work experience for the JSO employees, and perfect our ability to add value to the services we provide our customers.
The CIU improvement techniques are derived from a combination of 'Lean' and other management theories.
The basic principle of "Lean" is to continuously remove waste. Waste is anything that does not add value.
The JSO is also a member of the Jacksonville 'Lean' Consortium. The Consortium consists of 48 local businesses and organizations dedicated to operational excellence using the Lean standard of operation.
In 2007, 
Sheriff Rutherford was the keynote speaker at the annual Shingo Prize Conference for Operational Excellence hosted by Utah State University.
Speeches and Presentations
In 2007 members of the Unit gave Continuous Improvement presentations to the International Association of Chief's of Police, the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's (FDLE), the Northeast Property and Evidence Association of Florida (PEAF), and the Jacksonville Lean Consortium.
The presentations are used to educate participants about Continuous Improvement tools which greatly improve performance and efficiency.
Rapid Improvement Events and Training
CIU uses Rapid Improvement Events (RIE) to identify and eliminate waste within job processes at JSO. One type of RIE is Value Stream Mapping where a specific process is analyzed step by step. This event can improve a process from 50 – 100% . The mapping event displays how work is done, how waste can be eliminated, and how the overall process' value can be improved.
Employee Suggestions
CIU became the clearinghouse for employee suggestions in the summer of 2006. Since its inception, the employee suggestion email process has recieved more that 200 comments. Employees can go to the CIU web page on the JSO intranet (94net.jaxsheriff.net) to view all suggestions from origination through completion.