Consulting Products and Services
- Value Stream Mapping and Strategy Alignment
Value Stream Mapping is a planning tool which matches the improvement tactics to the overall strategies of the organization, all of which is aligned to customer values. The map identifies value adding v. non value adding activities and opportunities to improve flow across the patient’s care. The map includes the flow of the vital resources of production (of patient care or other activities)-patients, material and information-across traditional boundaries. The output is a current and future state map and a series of identified improvement opportunities needed to achieve the future state. Participants are introduced to the benefits of lean thinking and are deeply involved in charting an improvement course.
- Rapid Process Improvement Events and Projects
These are 2-4 day workshops focused in targeted areas identified from Value Stream Mapping. During the events, teams of people who “touch the process”, study the current process in depth, find and eliminate waste, and use new tools to assure the change is sustained. Well organized and supported teams strive to remove the most waste possible, some as much as 50 percent. Methods to audit and sustain the improvements are installed, as well.
Improvement Projects utilize the same methods but are staged over a few weeks, in 3-6 hour bursts of team activity, followed by a period to observe the processes changed. - Identifying and Eliminating Waste
- The importance of, development and implanting Standard Work
- Characterizes of Flow
- Mistake Proofing
- Set-up Reduction and Rapid Changeover
- Pull (rather than push) Systems
- Level Loading and Balancing work among Team members
- Managing Change
These events, and similar efforts, become the keystone of the organization’s improvement program, teams are coached in use of fundamental lean tools, including;
- Daily Management of Operations
At the core of operations improvement is understanding how work processes flow to meet the needs of the customer, on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis. This product engages leaders, and those who do the work, in creating a tool which provides timely feedback on process capacity and defects. It supports teams to:
- Be responsive and to prevent defects real-time
- Monitor and sustain past improvements
- Promote a culture of continuous improvement
- Stress standard work and customer focused metrics
The output is development of Daily Management Boards and Methods to improve work flow.
- 5S Workshops and 5S Program Development
5S is the acronym for five specific actions to achieve workplace organization and standardization. They are: Sort, Simplify, Sweep, Standardize and Sustain. During 2-3 day events, participants learn the benefits of a 5S approach and implement the program in areas designated by the client.
The output of a 5S event/program is:
- Time savings due to reduced time searching for equipment, supplies and information
- Improved ergonomics
- Inventory reductions and better inventory controls
- Storage space returned for other uses, and better teamwork.
- Leaders coached in the methods to perpetuate and capitalize on the concept organization-wide.
- Developing the Infrastructure to Sustain an Improvement Program. Achieving a culture of Continuous Improvement is more than a series of events. It is learning and developing a way to inculcate the methods and the principles into daily work until it becomes a habit and a way of doing business.
The output of this product is coaching leadership in proven techniques which transform and anchor methods of improvement, including lean scorecards, process visibility, program audit, review and prioritization of improvement work.
- Lean Work Flow to Lean Facility Design. This work is adapted from Manufacturing’s “Production Preparation Process," or “3P” workshop. It begins with using volume and capacity data in the pre-design stages. Lean tools are applied to streamline processes and apply the results in the Schematic and Design Development phases. The work ends with a plan to restructure work as the new facility opens to achieve greater capacity and improved flow. The depth and breadth of this product is customized to meet the needs and requirements of the client.
The output of this product is a plan which merges Workflow Design with Facility Design in order to create a workplace that supports reduced waste and defect-free work in new or renovated facilities.
- Service Line Development. Breaking through the traditional silos of service delivery, this product stresses improvement across multiple departments resulting in more robust processes of care with fewer defects, enhanced and improved performance on quality metrics, and reduced cost per unit. Working with leaders of the departments which “touch the patients care processes” impact of work performed up and down stream is made visible and handoffs are improved to assure a more seamless delivery of services.