Inspector District Management Process Flow Study, Harford County Department of Inspections, Licenses, and Permits

Abstract

The Department of Inspections, Licenses, and Permits (ILP) in Harford County, Maryland works to create streamlined and efficient processes for inspections, licenses, and permits for the construction in the county. The inspections vary depending on the geo-location of the building, the type of construction, and its size. The ILP inspectors are certified experts, each specializing in a specific type of construction. Currently, assigning inspections to ILP inspectors is done manually, based on the location of the inspection request and the type of skill required. However, an increasing number of inspection requests, rapid development in the county, and the complexity of resources to be managed, the manual process of assigning inspections is becoming cumbersome and inefficient. Without a system to prioritize inspections, inspectors spend time traveling to different sites and allocating time toward inspections that may not be as important. This project’s objective is to redesign the process flow for administrators and ILP inspectors to help manage the inspections with minimal overhead. The project approach is to first study the existing process to understand the roles and responsibilities of each individual and the system, and how they collaborate. Based on that knowledge, a new process flow will be designed to optimize the process of inspection management.