Saturday, April 19, 2008|
NHS IT chief resigns after brief tenure - ZDNet UK.
11:37:57 AM Comment on this Item |
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This is an interesting problem for the NHS. How do you prevent people from deliberately endangering their lives in order to qualify for a service which is designed to save their lives? Patients 'put on weight to get NHS surgery' - Telegraph.co.uk.
11:33:17 AM Comment on this Item |
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Tuesday, March 11, 2008|
Reader Question: Model Lines. I received a question from a reader that was also addressed on the Daily Kaizen blog and Gemba Panta Rei. This question is from a hospital setting, but I think it's a good general Lean question: One our our struggles has been defining the best process for implementing lean. We are establishing a model line in food services and are looking to begin spreading to other departments. Our model line is still in a very early stage of development and we have only 2 engineers to support the hospital. Our focus has been to begin with a lean management system as a starting point. Some of the questions we have are:After initial cop out ("give me more time to think about this... there are no easy answers"), here is what I wrote: A quick answer (and maybe this will seem evasive) is to go through the PDCA process. Seems like you can pull back? Try it and see if the processes are being sustained. If not, jump back in, identify the root cause of the failure (lack of training, lack of time -- not really an excuse really -- misaligned incentives, etc). I'd make sure the burden of sustaining is NOT on the internal consultants. It needs to be on the shoulders of the leadership chain. If a VP is not making sure a director's organization is sustaining, you need to coach both the director and the VP. The internal consultants can only coach and advise. That's not an excuse for the consultants to not care about the results, but the burden can't be on them, its not fair and its a workaround if the consultant makes it work for them. If the consultant is involved daily, pull back gradually and see what happens (communicating this plan and making sure requirements of the line leaders is clear). You will learn eventually, for your organization and your culture, what normally works. But each dept may be different. I can usually tell early on which managers will actually sustain. If someone blows off the responsibilities of a lean manager by saying "Oh, I'm a hand's off manager" and they won't change... You might need to replace them. Managers can't always turn around. I know I didn't touch on every aspect of his question. The reader wrote back and said it was a good answer, and that, basically, it's hard to fight the temptation to look for "best practices" instead of going through the learning journey. What would you add? Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Message Board 1:53:30 PM Comment on this Item |
Thursday, March 6, 2008|
PDCA at the TSA?. The Transportation Security Administration is experimenting with checkpoint lanes designed for families to ease the pressure on parents struggling through an airport with young children.The emphasis on "experimenting" is mine. That's what PDCA is all about -- a small-scale experiment to see if an idea works or not. We often do that in the Lean approach, where someone has a theory (hopefully somewhat thought out) that making a change will improve a system. Supervisors might probe and ask why that idea is a good one or the best alternative. More often than not, we want people to make at least a small-scale trial with an idea, such as this TSA policy. The article continues: Segregated lanes could open around the country if the tests show the concept speeds up security lines.That's the key -- spread the concept ("Act") if tests show ("Check") that the implemented concept ("Do") works well. If not, kill the program (another form of "Act") and try something new. I've self-segregated myself in airport lines for a long time. Given a choice, I'd alway prefer to get behind an "expert traveler" instead of a family juggling a few kids and all of their stuff. The concept is criticized in the article by someone with a somewhat undisclosed conflict of interest. Oh well, bad reporting. Of course the guy who wants to SELL expedited security passes to frequent travelers doesn't want the TSA to improve flow -- that lessens demand for his product. So this policy seems OK to me -- if it's proven to work. But, then again, I don't have kids. How do those of you with kids feel about the policy? Either way, maybe you can use this as an example of PDCA when you're talking about it in your workplace. My headline would have been better if I had called it "PDSA at the TSA" (Plan Do Study Act, an alternative way of saying the same concept). Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Message Board 11:09:39 AM Comment on this Item |
Friday, January 18, 2008|
Toyota President Urges Genchi Genbutsu. Toyota juggernaut vows to improve (Detroit News): "Watanabe, a former purchasing chief who became president in 2005, said Toyota was working hard to improve quality and coordination with its parts suppliers, acknowledging that it had fallen short. 'There are cases where our efforts aren't adequate,' he said.Toyota has its share of problems these days -- quality problems and recalls, but the public face of the company is one of humility and a desire to do better, not excuses. Is Watanabe saying that Toyota has gotten away from the "go and see" approach, or is he just reiterating its importance? Watanabe's advice is the classic Toyota approach to problem solving, working at the "gemba" (the actual place where work is done) instead of in meetings or conferences rooms. Is there a chance to apply this approach in your company? Has this helped? What stories do you have to share about this method? Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Message Board 3:42:08 PM Comment on this Item |
, puts it real simply: "Go the place, talk to the people, see the problem." Tuesday, January 15, 2008|
The Danger of Overproduction?. PEPCON disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia With the space shuttle program frozen, no government instruction dictating where to ship the product, and no mandated storage procedure or proper storage facilities for such large quantities of product, PEPCON stored almost all manufactured ammonium perchlorate on-site, in plastic drums on campus parking lots. An estimated 4000 tons of the finished product were stored at the facility at the time of the disaster.Well, wouldn't you know, an employee was careless with a cigarette -- who allows smoking in a facility with explosive chemicals!?!?!?!? -- and one barrel exploded, flying through the air, landing in the middle of the main storage stockpile. According to fire responders, the plan at the factory had apparently been "in case of fire, run like hell," but they arrived to find employees trying to put out the initial fire with regular hoses. A huge explosion ensued with the force of 250 tons of dynamite equiv (3.5 on richter scale) that was felt at the Strip, 10 miles away. Two people were killed in what should probably be considered an utterly preventable disaster. It makes me wonder why it was cheaper or somehow better to keep producing the product, just to pile up dangerous inventory. Is there some chemical engineering reason that someone knows about? It seems like an interesting case study in failure mode planning, basic safety, and error proofing, not to mention the "waste of overproduction." I don't think I've ever heard of a case where overproduction had been deadly. Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Message Board 7:35:39 AM Comment on this Item |
Tuesday, December 4, 2007|
Lean Innovation Summit to examine cost-effective innovation - Michigan Business Review - MLive.com.
3:29:00 PM Comment on this Item |
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