Healthcare organisations – including hospitals – are giving up too soon on ‘Lean’ based improvement initiatives, according to specialist healthcare quality, innovation and productivity improvement enabler, Amnis.
Amnis’ Mark Eaton, explained: “A number of improvement initiatives underway in the healthcare sector are based on the concepts of ‘Lean’ and ‘Lean Sigma’ but, like many organisations in manufacturing where Lean has its origins, there is already evidence that some healthcare organisations are giving up on these initiatives before they realise real results or are simply changing processes and doing nothing to change the underlying culture and behaviours.”
According to Eaton – author of the book ‘Lean for practitioners’ – the top five reasons why this happens are:
1. Lean is not a Board issue but, instead, is launched at divisional or even individual department level. This leads rapidly to fragmentation of activity and dissipation of effort.
2. Not ensuring that the productivity improvements expected through Lean are aligned with the organisation’s objectives. This leads to Lean being ‘out prioritised’ by other activities and put on hold and, once it is on hold, it is one step from being mothballed.
3. Not building on previous experience. This is where Lean tries to undo all of the good things that have gone on – and are currently going on – and this builds resentment from frontline teams.
4. Building reliance on external consultancies or agencies. Building internal capability and, even more importantly, involving a healthcare organisation’s frontline teams, is the only way to get Lean out of the textbook and into the clinic.
5. Many organisations simply give up when they encounter problems, resistance or changing priorities because they have not built up the resilience that is needed to get through the initial period of turbulence.
“Starting out by treating Lean as a Board level issue, approaching it in a flexible manner and recognising the difference between changing processes and changing behaviours are the keys to long-term success,” said Eaton.
To help organisations to understand how Lean helps drive improvements in quality, innovation and productivity, Amnis runs a number of workshops for executives and front-line teams – including its Accelerated Lean Skills Programme.
In partnership with the Institute of Operations Management, Amnis is running an ‘open’ version of this programme from 8th to 10th September 2009. For more information, contact Amnis at info@amnis.uk.com or call 0870 446 1002.
About ‘Lean’ and ‘Lean Sigma’
Six Sigma is a business management strategy, initially implemented by Motorola, which enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variation in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organisation who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organisation follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).
Lean Sigma incorporates the speed and impact of ‘lean’ with the quality and variation control of Six Sigma.
Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.
About Amnis
Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in quality, innovation and productivity improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.
Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team are leaders in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.
Further information from: Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com
Lean Healthcare Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.