My dad’s prize possession was a 1965 Ford Fairlane that he meticulously restored. Everything on the car worked great, except it had one small oil leak that he just could not fix. He didn’t worry about it too much. He just added a quart of oil every once in awhile and kept on driving it.
Years went by. He never really added up the amount of oil that he had to put into that old car. If he had, he might have been surprised. The quarts soon became gallons, and the cumulative cost over the years would have been extremely high. Over all, it would have been cheaper to pay someone to repair the car than to keep pouring in the oil.
This illustration reminds me of how simple, small issues can actually add up to be extremely costly for an organization — because it’s so easy to overlook them.
For example, last year staff at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas noticed that the hand sanitizer containers throughout the facility would occasionally leak a little. By simply changing the containers to ones that waste less hand sanitizer, they were able to save approximately $12,000 per year.
Staff members discovered this improvement opportunity through a “waste walk.” A waste walk is a planned visit to where work is being performed to observe what’s happening and to note the waste. The UMC team looked at relatively small items (often less than $5,000) that were easily ignored, but also easily corrected. In evaluating these issues, the hospital found approximately $3.7 million in hard dollar savings that year. The staff utilized the waste walk not only to look for good improvement ideas, but also to foster good stewardship of scarce resources.
In 2017, the health center is participating in a second waste walk. They anticipate saving up to $8 million, and increasing revenue by $2 million. By paying attention to little things, savings can really add up.
The longer you have worked at an organization, the harder it is to see the waste around you. Taking a “waste walk” is one way to make the waste visible again. If you’d like to try a waste walk at your organization, here’s a sample tool you can use. Let me know how it goes!
How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace.
Recent Comments