Process Excellence in Healthcare: Using the Lean Six Sigma Approach

During the Managing Risk and Performance Through Business Process Management conference last March, Makati Medical Center shared their process excellence journey.

Makati Medical Center is one the premier hospitals in the country, and knowing that they are still working on improving their services is something else. It makes you trust them more. Trust is a big thing in the healthcare industry.

Makat Med’s journey started when they reviewed their admissions process flow.

 They found the following root causes of the delay in transferring a patient:

• tedious manual coordination for bed between units
• longer time spent on calls
• no visual availability of beds
• longer time spent on generation of reports
• limited room request confirmation

The solution: Lean Six Sigma…

1. by creating a bed management dashboard – reduced coordination time and there’s now a real-time bed availability, thus wait time is reduced
2. outsourced admissions call to a call center, thus less phone time for Admissions personnel. Through the call center, patients now have easier access.
3. as a result, pre-admission activities are done faster

To further improve the hospital also did this:

Like any other improvement, Makati Med management admits that this is a continuous journey. They will study their patient care processes and will improve them. What’s important is they went right into it.

The result: The JCI Gold Seal of Approval – an affirmation  of Makati Medical Center’s passion for excellent patient care.

Now you know where to go for your healthcare needs.

Filed under: Business Improvement, Business Process Management, Healthcare, Lean Six Sigma, Makati Medical Center, Six Sigma

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Would You Want to Live in a Lean Country?

I stumbled upon this article today, and I really find it interesting. The article over at Go Lean Six Sigma presents a county that is lean and all its possibilities.

A lean county is compared to a utopian government, only that in my opinion is more doable. Check out how a Lean County works here.

Now if a lean county can be achieved, am sure a lean country can too.

Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma

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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Philippines Corp.’s Lean Six Sigma Journey

In the 2nd Lean Six Sigma Conference 2012, Dr. Chandramogan Anamirtham, president and general manager of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Philippines Corp., shared how his company embarked on a Lean Six Sigma Journey.

Dr. Chandramogan showed us a video with a message that innovation starts with you. You don’t need to wait for other people to work or begin. Begin a task yourself. Create that breakthrough.

Their journey started with Dr. Chandra’s model for manufacturing excellence:

Q uality – Quality of People, Process, Product

U nit Cost – Value, Cost Consciousness

A ko – (In English, Me) means Accountability

L ean Six Sigma – Structured approach to improvement

I nnovation – Breakthrough, Patent

T eamwork – Inter-department, across sites

Y ield – Productivity, Output/Input

Product – Process – People

Lessons from Hitachi’s quality journey:

• Invest in people
• Invest in training
• Create change
• Embrace that change until that change becomes a way of life
• Nurture that culture by giving people the opportunity to grow in your company

Filed under: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Philippines Corp., Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma

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Six Sigma on Making Denims

I have always been a jeans person. My casual, run-errands attire is jeans and white tee. Thus it really matters to me that the jeans would fit me well and am comfortable wearing it. There are those that really fit to a T. In my case, it’s often the Guess jeans. I didn’t need to alter anything. I buy and wear them.

Like any apparel, it’s important that jeans come in good quality, that it comes in good denim.  It’s interesting to know that there are denim manufacturing companies that are making sure we get good quality.

I stumbled upon an article on The Monitor that says that South Texas College (STC) will train more than 300 Santana Textiles employees on ways to improve the denim’s quality, lower production costs and eliminate waste.

STC will train the employees in lean manufacturing, supply chain management and Six Sigma. It was cited that Santana CEO J. Michael Aiken sees the need for these strategies adopted by Motorola, Toyota and other successful manufacturers. The goal is for his company to reverse the trend of textile manufacturing heading overseas.

Read the full story here.

Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Manufacturing, Six Sigma

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Workshop with Dr. Umit Ozen: Business Process Mapping

Participants of the Managing Risk and Performance Through Business Process Management workshop were lucky to have Dr. Umit Ozen as the lead trainer.

He is an expert in Lean Production, Six Sigma, Process Management, Strategic Planning, Balance Scorecard, among other things. He has more than 18 years of experience in the fields of management strategies, so you can just imagine the depth of his knowledge, both theoretical and practical. You can be assured that when you are in the presence of trainers with this caliber, you will take home a lot of insights.

It was my first time to attend a workshop, and I promise myself that I will be taking workshops from now on. It’s interactive and more educational than attending a conference.

With Dr. Ozen, he was very generous with his ideas, and he’s the kind of trainer that is motivational and approachable. He went around, hopped on every table to see what each one of us was doing, and he would correct, suggest, and show us how to improve our output.

The first workshop we had, the activity was creating a business process map. He made us watch a video showing how to make a cup of delicious Turkish coffee. It looked so easy, but when the process mapping came, we didn’t really have an easy time.

Here’s my group doing the process map before presenting it to the group:

Reviewing our process map

Wrapping up our process map

Presenting our process map

Here’s the PLDT group, our seatmate, making their process map as well.

A process is easy to talk about, and in fact some are under the impression that it’s easy to do things, you just do it. But when you go to writing down and describing what you are do, it’s a different story. I admit, I was stumped for a time there, which means, I really need more training. {LOL}

Here are some tips in creating a process map:

Before drawing a process -

• Identify your process goals
• Determine your process starts and stop points
• List down your resources
• Identify your inputs and outputs
• Identify your customers and suppliers
• Identify your owner/responsible/practitioners
• Establish your procedures and forms
• Determine your performance indicators and targets
• Classify your sub-processes/activities carefully

It’s also important to know the process attributes:

• repetitive
• definable
• controllable
• manageable
• measurable
• continually improvable (PDCA)
• able to create added value

The  key to creating a process map is teamwork. It is evident in the pictures above. The team huddled together and discuss how each member understands the process, after which the team draws the map. It is important that everyone understands the process before making the map. Of course, the process map is not carved in stone. When necessary, the process map can be updated and improved.

Another value of writing down your process map is that you will discover steps that are unnecessary, and thus you streamline. Then you can begin to go lean.

The prize of making the process map is a cup of Turkish cup!

We didn’t get to taste the brewed one though. But Dr. Ozen brought in some instant 3-in-1 Turkish coffee. It was very rich and it tastes like rice coffee. Every sip, you get to taste some granules. It was yummy!

You may also want to read about what I learned during the workshop here. I suggest you look out for next year’s workshop session.

My BIG challenge now is to apply this to my workplace.

Filed under: Balanced Scorecard, Business Process Mapping, Dr. Umit Ozen, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, ProcessModel, Six Sigma, Team Dynamics, Tools/Toolkits, Training

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The 2nd Lean Six Sigma Conference 2012

Fiera De Manila once again brings you the Lean Six Sigma Conference. Last year’s conference was well attended and very useful. I for one was fascinated by Dan Lachica and his Lachica model.

In Mr. Lachica’s presentation, he emphasized the importance of being able to merge all relevant quality strategies and make it work for your organization. This foreshadows that foremost, you need to know and understand the processes of your organization.

This year, the 2nd Lean Six Sigma Conference (March 8-9, 2012 at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Makati City, Philippines) will focus on process strategies that will eliminate waste. In this changing business environment, new approaches and techniques are emerging. At the forefront  is customer-centricity, which aims to align organizational strategy for maximum ROI, instill process excellence, and take Lean Six Sigma tool sets and applications in continuous improvement program.

Top Reasons to Attend

• Understand the Lean Six Sigma methodologies to drive and sustain organizational performance
• Learn to integrate Lean Six Sigma in your business processes
• Know the latest customer thinking strategies
• Leverage on innovation approaches for process excellence
• Case study presentations of Lean Six Sigma application/implementation projects
• Great networking opportunities with Lean Six Sigma Experts and Quality Practitioners

Continue reading…

Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, Dan Lachica, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Processes

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Six Sigma Companies News: On Lean and Lean Six Sigma

Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.

First on the news is about the Task Force Resolute command. The command provides a Lean Six Sigma course four times a week at the U.S. Forces Afghanistan conference room on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. More of this here.

Second, a gas plant improves C3 recovery with Lean Six Sigma. Read more…

Third, read about how DST Global Solutions is managing Lean and continuous improvement to maintain that competitive edge. More of this here.

Fourth, find out how Kevin McMullen, the President and CEO, leverages Lean Six Sigma to improve processes at Omnova Solutions. Read more…

Lastly, read about the value of Lean in investments over at Industry Market Trends. Is Lean worth the investment? More of it here.

Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma

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The SixSig Roundup

Almost a year after my last roundup, I’m bringing back again the link-loving and see what other blogs are saying about Six Sigma, Lean, Lean Six Sigma and other quality improvement processes.

Let’s start with Mark Graban of Lean Blog, who compiled Dilbert’s strips that touch on Six Sigma or Lean. The strips are amusing and at the same they make you think hard about quality strategies. Check out A Collection of Dilbert Cartoons on #Lean and/or #SixSigma!

Over at Huntington Post, Aaron Hurst shares an interview with Ellen Lambert. the Executive Vice President of the Merck Company Foundation. Ms. Lambert talked about how they are using Six Sigma at Merck to make their processes more efficient and effective. Check out The Positive Side of Negative Space: An Interview With Merck’s Ellen Lambert!

Motley Fool reports that 3M used to lead in the area of innovation. In the recent years, however, 3M appears to have lost its innovation magic when it launched Six Sigma. Perhaps, many of you will disagree but this observation seems to be valid. Check out The Innovation Magic is Gone at 3M!

At PharmaExecBlog, there is an article there that is a good follow up on the case of 3M. Kevin Duffin, senior fellow, translational sciences at Eli Lilly – and a Six Sigma practitioner was asked during the Drug Information Association panel if Six Sigma indeed stifles innovation. Some believe so, others don’t. Weight it out for yourself by checking out DIA: Does Six Sigma Stifle R&D Innovation?

An article on Vision Systems Design, even automated systems to improve inspection processes need Six Sigma. How? Find out at how software seeks to minimize false positives in machine-vision inspection systems.

Filed under: 3M, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Pharmaceuticals, Quality, Six Sigma, Six Sigma News, Software/Technology

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Webinar: The New Rules of Lean Six Sigma

In this Webinar you will learn how to:

This webinar presents an alternative cost and service improvement option using a LSS approach for Financial Service processes.

Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Webinar

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Husqvarna Goes Lean Six Sigma

In recent years, Husqvana had to deal with increased demand for thier products. So to increase production capacity, this is what the company did:

Filed under: Lean Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma

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