Articles

Embracing Lean, Business Intelligence and Leadership in the Pathology Laboratory

Grand River and St. Marys Hospital Embrace Lean, Business Intelligence and Leadership to achieve process improvement in the Pathology laboratory. Continue reading

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Lean Helps Property Assessment Agency Exceed Expectations

Lean is aimed at engaging the talents of the Agencys people to eliminate waste, and create value for their customers. With an ever-increasing workload and limited resources, Lean helps to ensure that SAMAs clients and stakeholders needs are successfully met today and for the future. Read More Continue reading

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Double-Checking the Efficacy of Double-Checks

A very commonly-implemented intervention when attempting to mistake-proof a process involving humans is the double-check. Double-checks are, by their nature, waste. Often, double-checks are put in place as temporary stop-gap measures while more effective, value-adding countermeasures are devised and implemented. Continue reading

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University Reduces Procurement Processing Time by 50%

The University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) encourages students to Prepare, Discover, Transform. In this regard, the University is wildly successful. It is consistently ranked among the top 100 best US colleges for Hispanic students, and is 2nd in the nation for the number of bachelors degrees awarded. All that success is contagious, UTPA attracts talented academics from around the world to research and teach in its Edinburg, TX campus. But this success comes at a price. The University Infrastructure, which was adequate for a small regional college, now struggled to support the demands of the increased volume of a growing regional University.Without increasing costs or headcount, they were able to bring the lead time for the procurement process down by almost 50%! Read More Continue reading

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Lean: Does it Work?? Part 2

The Focus in Part 2 will be to begin to uncover some of the right ways to implement Lean and what some of the key indicators are that you should be aware of.

First, lets alleviate the misconception, apprehension or anxiety that Lean doesnt work. It does work!

The caveat is that you must discover the right or proper adaptation of the thinking and concept to your unique situation… Continue reading

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Lean Reflections- Leadership Buy In

Not all senior leaders have the vision, understanding or have bought in to making Lean a priority.
This is one of the critical steps and foundation blocks that must be in place to ensure the success of any Lean Transformation and Organizational Culture Change. During our Lean Executive Morning we brainstormed the root causes and many possible solutions worth exploring. Read more. Continue reading

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Toyota-style management helps hospital cut ER wait times

Nowhere is the need for improved efficiency more critical than in emergency rooms, where speedy care is a key component of good care.
The approach, known as lean, has long helped the auto and aerospace industries reduce waste and boost value for customers through continuous small improvements. With a cash strapped government trying to rein in health spending, Ontario hospitals are catching up, spurred by provincial directives to do more with less. Continue reading

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IRB goes Lean to cope with demands of new refugee law

The federal governments overhaul of Canadas refugee determination system is driving the Immigration and Refugee Board to embrace business efficiency practices pioneered six decades ago by Japanese automaker Toyota. The IRB is turning to Lean processes that have been implemented in Canada Post and the Mint, in partnership with Lean Advisors, that it hopes will enable it to deal with refugee applications and appeals much more expeditiously. Continue reading

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Healthcare Leaders Look Outside for Answers

Applied to hospitals, the term factory sounds like a metaphor for a mechanistic, uncaring environment. Nevertheless, a growing number of healthcare leaders are employing management ideas from manufacturing and other industries to make their facilities more cost-effective and at the same time, more responsive to the needs of patients, their families, and staff. In fact these methods, Lean in particular, help organizations do more with less makes them particularly applicable to today’s healthcare challenges. Continue reading

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Hydro Ottawa Uses Lean to Improve Project Delivery

In late 2010, Hydro Ottawa enlisted Lean Advisors to help reduce project lead times and improve efficiency. One of the challenges of operating an electrical utility is that the grid has to be constantly updated to meet customer demand. This calls for a coordinated effort from many individuals; every time a new building is added, design documents have to be created and approved, parts have to be ordered, and crews have to be allocated. Continue reading

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