Lean Category
A Case Study in Outpatient Registration Overview of Project For a seven week internship between my junior and senior year at Saint Vincent College I was placed in a local hospital’s outpatient registration department. At this particular hospital, registration took place in it’s own department, which registered for different areas such as radiology, CAT scan, and other outpatient areas. Over my time there I grasped and mapped out the current situation, trained the team in problem solving and the eight wastes, worked with that team to make future recommendations, and piloted the recommendations...
About Phoenix Sintered Metals Phoenix Sintered Metals, Inc. is a family owned manufacturer of powdered metal parts located in Brockway, PA. We specialize in producing structural parts to high strength and density. We distinguish ourselves from other powdered metal component producers through our design and manufacturing expertise. We, at Phoenix, pride ourselves in being a world class powder metal supplier in terms of technology, quality, and delivery. For more about Phoenix Sintered Metals please click here. Improvement at Phoenix: Below are two examples on the the Solution System at Phoenix...
Date: 18 May, 2011
Posted by: David Adams in: Leadership | Lean | Operational Excellence | Uncategorized
Dude, You Need Innovation! I just Googled (yep, it’s a verb now…) the word “innovation”. As of this date, there were “about” 201,000,000 results. You can discern something about a topic by the number of Google results there are. Innovation is a big deal these days. It may be a simple cloaking device for the real issue: organizations need to drive out cost without driving out people. To me, this sounds like a simple equation for Operational Excellence, at least the KCOE version of it. We aim for mutual trust and respect and the effect is this: costs drop. You win and your team...
Date: 04 Apr, 2011
Posted by: David Adams in: Leadership | Lean | Operational Excellence | Uncategorized
Give Those Tired Old Lean Tools a Rest… This is a picture of a process map where the different colors represent information and service (think product) flows as well as value-added or non-value-added steps in the process. If you were a casual observer watching me work with this multi-disciplinary team of engineers, detailers, leaders and craftsmen, you may think, “This guy is doing a Kaizen Event.” But, I’m not. In fact, this is a picture from Week 5 of a Quality Control (QC) Circle meeting. If you ask the team what they are doing, they’d simply reply, “Problem...
Broken pdCa Cycles Abound! I’ve been ruminating on this article for a few days now. I am seeing broken pdCA cycles as the root causes for so many problems. I see it here in the Center and in the hospitals and factories where we coach. I thought I’d give my two cents or, rather, two tips, for strengthening your PDCA cycles. PDCA Weaknesses First, be aware of your personal weak areas. Many process problems stem from what I call shunted PDCA cycles. These weak cycles are usually the weakest at the “check” step. The check is either shallow or completely missing. If checking...
Lean Culture Assessment The spider diagram below is the results of KCOE’s Lean Culture Assessment from a company we have been working with since the second quarter of 2009. After implementation and initial alignment of the steering committee, implementation of the balanced scorecard, problem solving I, 5S, suggestion system, and safety system, the scores have changed a bit. Within the next several months we will be performing the second Lean Culture Assessment of the organization. We will share with you the results on our blog and client testimonial page. Interested in KCOE’s...
Operational Excellence Acronyms | KCOE Operational Excellence Acronyms About KCOE | Operational Excellence Acronyms The Kennametal Center for Operational Excellence (KCOE) is a team of expert coaches who, through their own practical experiences and studies, are uniquely qualified to provide high quality, results-driven training and coaching in Operational Excellence (OE). During the course of our training and coaching session the “OE Faithful” begin to know, understand, and use certain operational excellence acronyms. If you’re new to an event it may be helpful to read over...
World Class Alignment | Deep Learning Forum World Class Alignment Described Common targets, valid for everybody, are fixed together. Personal and common targets harmonize. All targets are quantified and are adapted to the changing environment completely. The whole company agrees on the targets one or two times per year and orients measured plans accordingly. Core strategies, measures, targets, and plans are written down and visualized on the spot. All employees have an extensive look on the status and change on how they can contribute to the efficiency. Necessary data is no longer...
About Lean 101 Airplane Exercise at Saint Vincent College Lean 101: Introduction to Lean Manufacturing and Healthcare. This is a two-day event that introduces and trains attendees on topics such as kanban, one-piece-flow, problem solving, andon, and pull systems. KCOE utilizes the Lean 101 Airplane Exercise to help facilitate learning. By the end of the two days, attendees should have a broad understanding of lean concepts and definitions. Attendees should leave with an “eye for improvement” and be able to identify the difference between waste and value, along with their new understanding...
5S Workshop, April 20, 2011 5S+1 Agenda Time | Action Item 0830 | Welcome 0845 | Car Exercise 1015 | 5S+1 Training 1115 | Build a Car Exercise using 5S 1200 | Lunch 1245 | Create a daily end of shift restoration list 1315 | Create a 5S Audit 1345 | Perform the audit and checklists 1400 | Intro to balanced scorecard 1430 | Where 5S fits in the balanced scorecard and the KCOE System 1500 | KCOE Institute Members share 5S+1 stories 1600 | Adjourn
