Using Process Improvement to End Homelessness
Homelessness is an issue that pervades many societies around the world, but it seems to be an exceptional struggle for the United States. It’s a complex problem that leads many to conclude that the homeless will always be a part of today’s urban environment. However, an organization called Community Solutions believes that homelessness is truly a solvable problem. It’s just an issue that’s lost its sense of urgency. By utilizing data, Community Solutions is helping communities combat homelessness real time, by tracking progress against monthly goals, and accelerating the spread of proven strategies. Through an initiative called Built for Zero, they’re creating systems that are built for learning, allowing organizers to change and improve as they go, prioritize resources, identify gaps and match people to the best housing opportunities to fit their needs. And, it seems to be working. In January, The City of Rockford, Illinois Department of Human Services announced that the City has been recognized as the first community participating in Built for Zero to effectively end homelessness among local veterans. Using data for improvement isn’t only about having the correct numbers and facts – it’s about using them for decision-making – to make adjustments, refine systems and track progress in real time. This isn’t a new or revolutionary approach. In fact, most operations and business excellence problem solvers across industries already make daily improvements and adjustments that are centered on data analysis. It is unusual, though, to see it applied to improving the well-being of a community. In the case of Built for Zero, data analysis has enabled evaluation, troubleshooting and process improvement across a community’s entire housing placement system, helping communities prioritize resources, identify gaps and ensure that individuals and families experiencing homelessness are referred to housing opportunities that best fit their needs. In the past, cities have not kept track of housing placement data on a community level. Individual agencies may collect data on the number of clients it houses in a week or a month, but odds are that data isn’t relayed across the system. Without this data, community leaders have know way of knowing if progress is being made. In theory, fixing the problem is simple. In order for a community to end homelessness, the total number of people it places into housing each month should be greater than or equal to the number of people it needs to house that month to achieve a path to zero. If those numbers are out of whack, then it’s easy to tell that a community needs to adjust its strategy. That’s where an openness for data collaboration comes in. Participating communities are publicly sharing their monthly housing placement measurements, allowing community leaders, partners and stakeholders to track progress in real time. This transparent feedback loop not only allows a community to constantly evaluate and enhance its system, it also creates shared accountability and buy-in across the entire housing placement system and encourages learning and communication across communities within the initiative. It is this type of transparent, real-time, person-specific data that will help communities optimize resources, improve multi-agency coordination and accelerate housing placements, ultimately bringing the goal of ending veteran and chronic homelessness nationwide over the next few years within reach. What other societal issues do you think could be helped by process improvement? Please share your ideas! 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 MoreAn Rx from Pharma: Quality by Design
Several years ago, I spent a summer working for a company that manufactured communication antennas. I can still remember the quality control analyst coming by, twice a day, with a grocery cart full of parts that had been rejected for not meeting tolerance standards. I was amazed at the amount of work that went into creating these parts, just to have such a large volume returned because they did not meet quality standards. What a waste! The main problem with late-stage quality analysis is that it only detects and gets rid of substandard products or parts—it doesn’t prevent them from being created in the first place. As manufacturing has evolved over the years, companies have put in place a variety of techniques to evaluate quality more rigorously, and in many cases, to embed quality control throughout the manufacturing process. In a recent article in Pharmaceutical Technology, Hermes Pharma‘s Analytical Development Senior Manager Martin Koeberle, Ph.D. and QbD & Drug Regulatory Affairs Senior Manager Wolfgang Schiemenz discuss the use of quality by design in pharmaceutical manufacturing. By utilizing quality by design techniques, pharmaceutical companies like Hermes Pharma are able to determine critical quality attributes (CQAs) that may significantly affect the quality of their final product. By honing in on these CQAs in advance, the team can identify the key variables that affect the production process, or critical process parameters (CPPs). These can be actively monitored to avoid any deviation in the manufacturing process, ensuring product quality and that CQAs are met. Techniques such as this also may enable the company to simplify regulatory compliance. By making early adjustments to the manufacturing process, they can avoid costly late-stage adjustments that have to be formally registered with regulatory bodies after large scale production has begun. As pharmaceuticals become increasingly complex to manufacture, it’s more important than ever that quality is designed into the them from the beginning to ensure patient safety. And ultimately, to deliver a better product that improves lives and better patient outcomes. If you haven’t checked out the article, it’s worth the read. The lessons learned can be applied across many industries that are working to boost production output, reduce throughput times, lower costs, and deliver an amazing products that meet the needs of customers. 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 More“Waste Walk” Adds Up to Big Savings
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...
Read MoreThe Butterfly Effect
Have you ever worked several weeks or months putting together a large project that would affect your entire company, then felt the overwhelming disappointment when it failed? Often the most intricate plans go awry and a lot of effort is spent on something that is not useful for the organization. There are many expressions to describe starting something, including, “the longest trip begins with a single step,” or, “the entire ocean is affected by a single pebble.” In chaos theory, the term “butterfly effect” was coined by Edward Lorenz to describe a small effect in one area that ends up having significant impact in other, seemingly unrelated, areas. This is often described in weather prediction as a butterfly flapping its wings in South America, leading to a tornado occurring in China. This concept can be applied to process improvement initiatives. Many companies go into process improvement with a “big bang” approach, dedicating a lot of resources to initially roll out a Continuous Improvement (CI) plan across the company. Unfortunately, this type of approach often fails because the underlying support that is necessary to maintain the initiative hasn’t been developed. I worked for a company that actually did not have a continuous improvement program, but instead identified one individual who had training in Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Through small but steady efforts, he completed a project that provided success in multiple areas of this global company. Often, it’s not the big broad strokes that are required, but much more the small strategic steps, building one upon the other. By building support and successes one step at a time, a company can nurture a CI program that becomes truly a part of the company’s culture. What first step can you take to help your company on its journey to CI? 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 MoreTime to Put On Your Six Thinking Hats
Several years ago while visiting with my dad, I heard a recitation by radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. My dad was a big Paul Harvey fan, and thus I heard a lot of Paul Harvey recitations. This particular recitation was at Christmas time. It was about a farmer who was trying to get a bunch of birds out of the snow and cold into a nice warm barn. The farmer thought to himself, “If only I could think like a bird, I could help them understand where to go for warmth and shelter.” Often we are like the farmer as we sit in a meeting, trying to get our coworkers to understand our point of view. It can be very difficult, especially in trying to be creative while problem-solving. To help address this issue, particularly in developing solutions for Continuous Improvement programs, one can use a system designed by Edward de Bono, which he referred to as the “Six Thinking Hats.” Using this technique, team members are coached to consider ideas the way that other team members may see them. The six hats — managing, information, emotions, discernment, optimistic response and creativity — can be used to help direct one’s point of view. For instance, an engineer that normally will use logic when approaching an issue may be asked to put on an emotions hat, thinking more intuitively and instinctively. Or someone who is deeply devoted to information, considering only the facts, may be asked to wear the creativity hat, thinking beyond just data. In each case, the team member is really looking at the same issue, but in a different manner than they normally would. By evaluating an issue or problem from a different point of view, team members can gain insights into their own thought processes and those of others and be able to expand upon potential ideas for solutions. While this is not a technique to be used for all phases of a project, it is quite commonly used in developing improvement strategies. How do you help the farmers on your team understand the point of view of other team members? Give six thinking hats a try. You might be surprised at the results. 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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