Improve Productivity

Most employees come to work wanting to do a good job. Most employees also think they are working hard and are doing a good job. The fact is they are working hard but that does not mean that they are working smart or working on value generating activities.

All processes within any organization are made up of value and non-value activities. The interesting fact is that most of the activities that staff must complete are non-value. It isn't that the staff are not performing properly or trying to do non-value work, it is that the process is designed with non-value activities and they have no option but to follow the process as set out. Therefore it is not the people - it is the 'system' that drives people to do non-value activities.

In this time of a) increasing demand on our health care system, b) lack of qualified staff and c) no increase in funding, it is imperative that we take care of the staff we have, help decrease workplace fatigue and stress while increasing productivity and pride in their work. This challenge seems unattainable but by adapting, applying and implementing Lean properly, you can reach these goals and even surpass them.

Lean is all about doing more with less while improving quality, client satisfaction, costs and speed of reaction to client needs. Lean when applied culturally and technically will allow any organization in Health Care to provide better service to patients without increasing costs, space or adding any capital equipment. With Lean, your entire group understands what is value and non-value from the perspective of the client and they know exactly how to remove the non-value activities properly to create a Future State which is truly value. Once the non-value activities are removed or reduced, then the staff can do more of what they were professionally trained to do - to treat and assist patients. The additional improvements are reduced stress levels of staff plus groups working together on a vision of a Future State (team support and pride of accomplishments).

For example - when you standardize a process and eliminate the waste from that process, it makes the process quicker, predictable and the entire process is less chaotic. Instead of the "Hurry Up and Wait" cycle of batching that happens currently, the continuous flow creates a calmer atmosphere in the workplace.

Now your staff can become more productive without working harder - they are doing only value added work and not wasting their time on non-value.