There’s Always Room for Improvement
A few months ago I met with a group that wanted to learn about Lean Six Sigma. As we began our discussion, they assured me everything was going well. They just wanted to get more information on how we might consider a continuous improvement process. As we talked, it became apparent that there were several potential areas that could be evaluated. These included a very complicated production process, a multi-stage transportation process from factory to warehouse, and a lot of variation in the intermediate and final products that they were producing. I asked them about bottlenecks -areas where things are not going as smoothly as one would hope or expect. As we delved into the processes that they were using, they began to realize that there were multiple areas that, while not broken, could certainly use a tweak here or there to help improve productivity. Our discussion led into several areas of Lean, talking about transportation, over-engineering, and loss of time. We decided however to focus on a bigger issue dealing with defects, and that a Six Sigma project would be very appropriate for what they needed to evaluate. It’s often interesting to talk to individuals or groups to understand how things are done at their company. At first, everything is fine. But the more you talk, the more anecdotal information you get about what is really happening — problems that have bubbled up or excess resources devoted to working around issues. One of the first steps in any continuous improvement program is admitting that there is room for improvement. A “perfect” system doesn’t need any help, because the people using it won’t admit they need help. It’s important as one considers either a new cip or one that’s been well established for some time to keep an open mind about what could be changed and what could be gained by those changes. 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...
Read MoreThe Power of Checklists
My wife and I recently went on a trip for business and pleasure. As we were preparing to go, she put together a packing list. I, being a non-list person, began filling up my suitcase and finished much sooner than she did. Needless to say, I discovered a few key items that I had forgotten to pack once we reached our destination, necessitating a stop at the local drug store. In looking back on this incident, I can see the advantage that my wife had in creating a checklist of items she wanted to take with her. We’ve traveled enough that she has a standard list that she works from each time. Although she may add or subtract a few items based on our destination or time of year that we’re traveling, it seems that she never forgets any of the items that she wants to bring for the trip. Lists such as this are very useful in a variety of settings. While discussing airplanes with a pilot friend, he told me that he uses a checklist each time he goes flying. And while he’s been flying more than 30 years (currently in a two-seater instead of a 747), he still uses a checklist for each flight. Checklists have also been utilized in medicine, particularly in hospital settings. In his book The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon and researcher Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, argues that today’s workplaces have become so incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually inevitable. He illustrates how a simple, low-tech checklist can make all the difference in reducing errors and ensuring patient safety. When designing a new continuous improvement process, checklists can be extremely handy in ensuring that everyone knows what the process is, and follows the process the same way. This helps to ensure uniformity and completeness of the new process. It also prevents the tendency to relapse into old methodologies, thus negating the gains from the new process. Most organizations have standard operating procedures of some nature. Within those, how many actually have a checklist of the steps involved within that process? Does your organization use checklists, and, are there ways to incorporate checklists in the work that you are doing? I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 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...
Read MoreUsing Data to Turn the Tide of the Opioid Crisis
We’ve all seen the statistics: Drug overdoses, most of which are related to opioids, killed over 64,000 people in the United States last year — an increase of 21% over 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The opioid crisis hit Indiana especially hard. In 2015, IV drug use in Indiana caused the nation’s worst HIV outbreak in 20 years, affecting rural Scott County. Let’s face it — the issue is complicated. There are challenges with both prescription and illicit drugs. Solutions must reduce the number of people who become addicts in the first place, as well as cure those who do. The underlying issue of pain management must be addressed. For all these reasons, the State of Indiana has recognized that understanding the data, and blending them with statistics from other agencies, is key to solving the complexities of the drug crisis in Indiana, and hopefully the nation. Issie Lapowsky described the state’s efforts to attack the problem in an enlightening articlethis fall in Wired magazine. Earlier this year, Indiana started an online opioid data center, where pharmacies, hospitals, mental health organizations, police departments and others can share data to help everyone see the big picture of what is really going on across the state. Working with the analytics-software provider SAP, the State of Indiana constructed a database that includes information on drug arrests, drug seizures, death records, pharmacy robberies, overdose-related ambulance calls, and the use of naloxone, an overdose-reversal drug. State officials also incorporated the data-visualization tools from Tableau, so agencies providing the data can log in and observe trends over time. This far-reaching data-sharing effort—including some 16 government agencies—is amazing in a country still struggling to keep up with the recent explosion of opioid abuse. The state’s efforts are beginning to pay off. To decide where to locate five new opioid treatment facilities, the team took a map of state’s existing treatment facilities and meshed it with a map of overdose cases and instances where paramedics administered naloxone. Then, they measured the distance from the areas with the most overdoses to the nearest treatment location to identify gaps where new facilities might be most helpful. They’ve also been able to monitor drug seizures real time, to monitor new drugs that are hitting the black market. This can help the state spot new drug outbreaks before they reach crisis levels. If you’d like to hear more about how big data is transforming public health and learn what’s next in the battle against the opioid scourge, check out the INconversation with Dr. Jennifer Walthall, Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration on Jan. 24 from 4-5:30 p.m. at Indiana Humanities, 1500 N. Delaware. Dr. Walthall is leading the charge to use data to target the areas of the state most in need of treatment programs. Kudos to the team for their efforts to foster collaboration and data sharing to help agencies collectively address the opioid issue real...
Read MoreSanta’s Secret: Lean Six Sigma
Have you ever wondered how Santa manages to deliver ALL those presents, to the right children who asked for them, at the right time, at the right house – every single Christmas? There’s only one plausible explanation. To accomplish this monumental task each year, Old Saint Nick MUST run a very Lean organization! In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he uses Lean Six Sigma processes to eliminate waste in inventory management, transportation and materials, as he and his elves assemble millions of toys and flawlessly distribute them worldwide. This fun holiday blog by Six Sigma green belt @JaredMunk got me to thinking. Who has a more demanding and impatient customer base than Santa? And he has one chance to get it right. To get input from his customers, he collects data from parents and Santa’s helpers around the world. They help him understand who has been naughty or nice, as well as what special gift each child would love to have. Of course, there’s only one Santa….but he has a lot of look-alike assistants at the malls, doesn’t he? No double Santa uses data from NORAD’s Santa Tracker to improve the precision of his delivery logistics, as their scientific instruments map his delivery route across the sky. He probably employs just-in-time manufacturing techniques to keep down inventory and ensure that the hottest gifts – like this year’s Fingerlings – are available when needed. Spreading Christmas joy to children worldwide is a complex undertaking. Santa must use Design for Six Sigma to coordinate all the intricate processes so that everything works together smoothly. So if your son or daughter begins to doubt if Santa is really real and asks you this holiday season, “How does he do it?,” you can reply with a smile – “Six Sigma, my child.” Happy holidays to you all! 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! 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...
Read MoreKindness As A Process Improvement
While perusing my LinkedIn account last week, I ran across an article in Business Insider that caught my eye. The author, Kate Taylor, discussed how Chick-fil-A is beating is the competition, not with technology or undercutting prices, but with simple acts of kindness. By teaching employees to use simple phrases like “please” and “thank you,” the company has developed a customer satisfaction rating that leads the food industry. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, as we often think that process improvements cost a great deal of money. Yet coaching staff to use certain phrases that address customer expectations is probably one of the least expensive and most cost-efficient ways one can use to improve customer satisfaction. A good way to evaluate factors for customer satisfaction is the Kano model, developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano. It involves multiple customer need levels, including an expected and/or base quality, a normal quality, and a high or exciting quality. In the expected quality category, one would include standard items such as a bed in a hotel room, or chairs in a waiting room. Normal qualifiers could be items that satisfied basic needs or basic requirements, such as three bedrooms in a new home. If a couple with two kids found a home with three bedrooms, then they would likely be satisfied because it meets their basic expectations. The real goal is to obtain those factors that are considered exciting qualities or “delighters.” These are things that, while not an expectation of the customer, are actually above and beyond the expectation. For me, an example of this is receiving warm cookies when checking into a hotel room. After driving all day and being hungry and tired upon arrival, who knew what a satisfier a sweet treat could be! The Kano model is good for helping to demonstrate what a company must provide for its customers, what it should provide, and those factors that will excite or “wow” a customer — those things that are unexpected, but very much appreciated. The next time you end a conversation with your customer, perhaps instead of using “thank you,” try Chick-fil-A’s approach and use, “My pleasure. I hope to see you again soon.” 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...
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