The average tenure of a departing CEO has declined from approximately 10 years in 2000 to 8.1 years in 2012. Maintaining a customer-focused Lean strategy and continuous improvement culture can become a challenge when management changes often, unless it has become an institutionalized company-branded business management system for the company.Lean for the Long Term allows readers to benefit from the operating experience and research of the authors who have been deeply involved in leading Lean transformations that last in today's ever-changing business landscape. It presents a Lean management system model that encompasses leadership, process, and growth as the model to drive business performance.The authors investigate the fragile nature of a Lean culture and the resulting effects on people and the company when the culture shifts. They illustrate the methods several companies have used to achieve successful Lean transformations that last and also offer guidance on how to build your own action plan based on the best practices outlined in the text.Until now, there have been few books to supply in-depth discussions on Lean as a strategy and management system. Filling this need, this book will help you to move toward a broader, more strategic use of Lean principles in your business.The book uses clear language to present insights on how company leaders and Lean practitioners can improve communication. After reading the book, you will better understand how your company operates, how to align your efforts, and how to decide what to do despite the complexity of day-to-day business operations.

The best time to stop projects or programs that will not be successful is before they are ever started. Research has shown that the focused use of realistic business case analysis on proposed initiatives could enable your organization to reduce the amount of project waste and churn (rework) by up to 40 percent, potentially avoiding millions of dollars lost on projects, programs, and initiatives that would fail to produce the desired results. This book illustrates how to develop a strong business case which links investments to program results and, ultimately, with the strategic outcomes of the organization. In addition, the book provides a template and example case studies for those seeking to fast-track the development of a business case within their organization.Making the Case for Change: Using Effective Business Cases to Minimize Project and Innovation Failures provides executive teams and change agents with the information required to make better business case decisions. This book can be used throughout the life cycle of the project to assist with gaining a better understanding of the following key knowledge areas for developing a business case: Understanding the present problem/improvement opportunity Documenting how the project, program, or initiative will add value to the organization Validating the data and the assumptions that the projected improvements are based upon Calculating the level of confidence that can be placed upon the conclusions that are reached Assessing the alternative solutions that were considered Weighing the costs vs. the benefits of the proposed initiative Analyzing and mitigating the risks to completing 100 percent of the project's goals Eliciting and prioritizing the requirements of key stakeholders and subject matter experts Identifying the key people that are involved in the proposed project and the skil

Many organizations are looking for that magic tool or methodology that will suddenly transform them into outstanding organizations. Unfortunately, there is no one right answer for all organizations or even for a single organization. Successful organizations skillfully integrate the appropriate improvement approaches with honesty, commitment, and constancy of purpose across all levels of management.This book, part of The Little Big Book series, discusses the most common set of tools and methodologies used in managerial, strategic planning, project selection, and organizational improvement projects that are referred to throughout The Little Big Book series. It presents, in a concise no-nonsense format, the concepts and techniques that must be mastered by project managers and anyone tasked with managing an improvement project.The tools covered in this book include affinity diagrams, brainstorming, cause-and-effect diagrams, the Kano model, organizational process improvement, Pareto analysis, project management, risk management, root cause analysis, storyboarding, value propositions, and workflow diagrams.Because of the large number of tools and techniques covered, the book supplies concise operating guidance for each tool that is adequate to prepare readers to understand and use that tool. It also includes examples of how the tools are used.The book provides a basic understanding of the tools you need to improve the processes you are currently using to manage your organization and, ultimately, to improve the quality, productivity, and agility of the products or services you are delivering to your customers.The tools presented in this book are the essential tools that all organizations should be using. By understanding and using the tools covered in this book, you will possess a better overall understanding of the way your organization needs to function in today's increasingly competitive environment.This

Organizations around the world are rating their improvement efforts as not producing the desired long-term results. Dr. Harrington's research indicates that this occurs because organizations are using the latest improvement tools and approaches without first defining how they want to change their organization's culture, environment, and key performance drivers.Organizations must first define what controllable factors drive business results. They then must define how they want to change these key performance drivers and behavioral patterns. Only then can they select a customized set of tools and approaches that will bring about the desired transformation.The first book in the Little Big Book Series, Performance Acceleration Management (PAM): Rapid Improvement to Your Key Performance Drivers, explains how to accelerate the rate of change and improvement in your organization to exceed your customers expectations. It introduces the PAM approach to accelerated performance improvement and explains how to use it to bring about significant change to your organization's long-term performance. Supplying answers to commonly asked questions, the book provides you with the understanding to: Conduct an improvement requirements assessment Define key drivers and develop vision statements for each Define desired behavioral patterns and performance goals Develop individual key performance driver (KPD) transformation plans Develop and implement a five-year combined PAM plan Obtain approval from the executive team Delving into more than 50 years of experience helping organizations implement improvement approaches, H. James Harrington highlights key opportunities to add value to your organization. With over 1,400 different improvement tools available today, this book provides a set of tools to define how you want to change your organization's key performance drive

Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), and Value Engineering (VE) have a proven track record of success for solving problems and improving efficiency. Depending on the situation, integrating these approaches can provide results that exceed the benefits of each individual approach. Value Engineering Synergies with Lean Six Sigma: Combining Methodologies for Enhanced Results describes how to integrate these dynamic tools to achieve unprecedented improvements and break down the organizational stovepipes that can occur when different offices are assigned responsibility for different problem-solving methods. The book identifies opportunities where readers can integrate these approaches to go beyond what is currently possible with the individual approaches. Explaining the VE methodology, it supplies a high-level discussion of LSS and DFSS. Next, it compares VE with LSS and identifies the different opportunities for synergies that can provide your organization with a competitive edge. Includes detailed LSS-VE cross-reference charts Contains product- and process-oriented VE material designed for LSS black belt training Provides a list of the most commonly used LSS, DFSS, and VE tools The authors describe VE and LSS in a way that is different from, but consistent with, the current literature. To facilitate comparison, the book graphically depicts VE and LSS and maps the two tools into one another to provide you with a clear understanding of the circumstances and types of problems where integrating these techniques will be most effective. The ideas and synergies presented in this book can help industry professionals and those in government accelerate the adoption of efficiencies in their operations.

Organizational measures are the foundational building blocks that shape an organization's vision and action. All too often however, these measures do not receive the attention they deserve. In addition, it is common for organizations to overact and measure too much, resulting in the same results as when you don't measure at all a lack of understanding, focus, and direction.The Right Measures: The Story of a Company's Journey to Find the True Indicators of Its Success and Values uses a compelling story to explain how using the right measures can make all the difference between success and failure in your organization. It follows the story of two companies one that measures in great detail, yet its overall goals and objectives are not being achieved. While the other uses a much simpler, yet effective measurement structure that integrates cultural acceptance, individual performance, and team performance with key performance indicators (KPIs). Defines organizational measures and explains why companies use them Explains what different companies measure and how those measurements reflect organizational values Supplies the tools to make measurement a focus in your organization Illustrating how measures can impact employee behavior, bottom-line profitability, and customer satisfaction, this fast-paced business novel provides the understanding required to select the appropriate measures for your organization measures that will motivate and guide your employees along the path to success. Using real-world examples, it supplies time-tested insights to help you establish the foundational structure needed to succeed in today's increasingly competitive global business environment. A website dedicated solely to the book can be found at: http://www.therightmeasures.com/

There are many books available covering the Training Within Industry (TWI) programs, but few include any unique material on adaptation or modification. This dearth of new has caused practitioners to alter the programs without understanding the underlying principles. These changes have made the programs less effective. One must, however, maintain the principles used in the programs when changing the delivery of the programs to suit the culture. The purpose of The TWI Facilitator's Guide: How to Use the TWI Programs Successfully is to prevent the TWI programs from falling into misuse and disuse. This book will explain the main principles of the TWI programs and what they can accomplish, but it will also stress what they are not. This book reviews what the programs are and then explains how to use them. It tells why we do certain aspects of each program. When we know why we do something, we won't stop doing it for the wrong reason.

Written by two experts who have dedicated their careers to quality improvement, Escape the Improvement Trap: Five Ingredients Missing in Most Improvement Recipes separates itself from other improvement books by looking at why most companies rarely achieve anything more than an average level of improvement maturity. They identify five critical ingredients required for successful improvement: 1. A meaningful business value proposition and strategy that drives key improvement actions2. An engaging environment where people can do their best work3. A focus on meaningful metrics while avoiding irrelevant details4. Process improvement efforts that maximize cross-functional process performance and foster deeper process understanding, innovation, and execution of best work practices5. An executive mindset that focuses on customer value, people development, process performance, and business improvement outcomes, not solely on savings The authors consider a variety of situations at Independence Enterprise, a fictional company, based on their own very real experiences. They elaborate on the principles that should come into play, look at what Independence Enterprise is doing right and wrong, and suggest deployment actions to help you apply the principles to your own organization.

Demonstrates How To Perform FMEAs Step-by-Step Originally designed to address safety concerns, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is now used throughout the industry to prevent a wide range of process and product problems. Useful in both product design and manufacturing, FMEA can identify improvements early when product and process changes are relatively easy and inexpensive to make. Updated to include changes reflected in ISO/TX-16949:2002 standards and 2008 AIAG guidelines, The Basics of FMEA, Second Edition continues to provide the expert advice needed to help shorten the learning curve for FMEA teams to conduct effective and efficient FMEAs, even if it is their very first one. Includes Ready-to-Use Worksheet Templates Using a manufacturing case study, readers learn step-by-step how to use FMEAs to assess, evaluate, and prioritize areas of risk, and then to implement the actions needed to reduce risks to an acceptable level. It shows the steps needed to ferret out potential problems and prevent making inferior products that could endanger public and worker safety and compromise profits as well as the future of all stakeholders. Although engineers have typically analyzed processes and products for potential failures, the FMEA process standardizes the approach and establishes a common language that nontechnical as well as technical employees can use at all levels. Unlike other improvement tools, FMEA does not require complicated statistics. However, they require a full commitment to quality and a willingness to take a team approach that involves all stakeholders.

Most business readers have heard of the Lean principles developed for factories a set of tools and ideas that have enabled companies to dramatically boost quality by reducing waste and errors producing more while using less. Yet until now, few have recognized how relevant these powerful ideas are to individuals and their daily work. Every person at a desk, drafting table, workstation, or operating table must (like a factory) deal with the challenge of reducing the waste that creeps into their work. The same Lean principles that have improved efficiencies on the factory floor can be just as powerful in fact, far more so in helping individuals boost personal performance. Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award!A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance describes how you can foster a new mindset and improve your performance by applying Lean methods to your work. It translates powerful Lean tools such as visual management, flow, pull, 5S, and kaizen to your daily work, revealing how they can help to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and link you ever more closely to customer value. This practice will help you develop better self-awareness, more disciplined problem-solving skills, and the ability to self-correct errors. This book not only provides the tools, but also teaches you how to find the root causes underlying your inefficiencies so you can eliminate them permanently. It will enable you to immediately improve personal productivity while developing the skills needed for continuous improvement. It includes real-world examples that illustrate how these principles have been successfully applied across a range of industries. Providing the perfect mix of what-to-do with why-to-do it, the text details a step-by-step approach to applying Lean principles to your work. Listen to what Daniel Markovitz has to say about his ne

For decades, 5S practitioners have struggled with exactly how to implement and sustain a 5S program in their workplaces. While there are many books available on the organization methods suggested by 5S, few provide easy-to-understand, step-by-step guidance on how to set up and sustain successful 5S implementations. 5S Made Easy fills this need.Written by an expert whose focus for the last decade has been nothing but 5S, the book supplies in-depth guidance on how to implement and sustain each of the 5S pillars'sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.The book uses an easy-to-follow format that was designed for use during 5S events. It provides color images of real-world 5S solutions, including before and after pictures from the field. It also supplies readers with online access to all of the forms and documents needed for an effective 5S program. All the forms and documents are provided in an easily editable format to fit any operation.

You likely don't need any more tools, programs, or workshops to improve your hospital. What you need is a simple and consistent approach to manage problem-solving. Filling this need, this book presents a Lean management system that can help break down barriers between staff, directors, and administration and empower front-line staff to resolve their own problems.Lean Daily Management for Healthcare: A Strategic Guide to Implementing Lean for Hospital Leaders provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to roll out Lean daily management in a hospital setting. Ideal for leaders that may feel lost in the transition process, the book supplies a roadmap to help you identify where your hospital currently is in its Lean process, where it's headed, and how your role will change as you evolve into a Lean leader.Illustrating the entire process of implementing Lean daily management, the book breaks down the cultural progression of units into discreet, objectively measurable phases. It identifies what leaders at all levels of the organization must do to progress units into the next phase of development.Complete with case studies from different service areas in the hospital, the book explains how to link problem-solving boards together to achieve meaningful and measurable improvements in: the emergency department, the operating room, discharge times, clinics, quality, and patient satisfaction.After reading this book you will understand how consistent rounding, a few whiteboards, pen-and-paper data, and a focused effort on working the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle can help you build a common problem-solving bench strength throughout your organization establishing the framework upon which future improvement can be built.

Since the success of products significantly depends on the quality of product performance, inadequate management of the product design process can lead to improper performance of products that can result in significant long-term business losses. Design for Profitability: Guidelines to Cost Effectively Manage the Development Process of Complex Products presents a design guideline for complex product design and development that enables you to cost-effectively improve the technical performance of your products and consequently improve your competitiveness in the marketplace as well as improve profitability. The book helps you improve the competitiveness of your organization in the market and eventually improve profitability. It presents a mobile robots design guideline based on an empirical study of the mobile robots design process. This is an unprecedented guideline based on the empirical investigation of the internal aspects of the design process of complex products for cost-effectively enhancing the competitiveness in the market. The book also presents a hybrid lean-agile design paradigm for mobile robots. In addition, it points out key approaches and risks to manage the product development process efficiently. In designing complex products and integrated systems, industrial designers face a dilemma of cost-effectively striking a balance between product development time and product performance attributes. This book shows how and when value is added in product design and development through identifying statistically the most and least correlated design activities and strategies to product performance attributes. Introducing a new paradigm in the field of engineering design, the book gives you key approaches to efficiently manage the product development process.

Lean Transformations for Small and Medium Enterprises: Lessons Learned from Italian Businesses summarizes two decades of research, teaching, and practice on lean thinking. Based on quantitative analysis of 100 cases of Lean transformations and 20 in-depth case studies of successfully transformed SMEs, it explains how to undertake lean transformations that lead to operational and financial performance improvement, and uses the Lean Transformation Framework --conceptualized by John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute as a practical approach to design and de-risk the transformation process. SMEs leaders wishing to undertake and sustain a lean transformation must: Make a serious and lasting commitment to transform, avoiding the temptation to change course of action; Choose accurately the value streams that require improvement as defined by strategy deployment; Build capabilities to sustain the transformation; Lead by example by going to gemba and creating a culture of respect for people that goes beyond the visible devices and artifacts of Lean tools.

There is a seismic shift underway in the employer/employee relationship that is redefining the nature of jobs and careers. Sole proprietors and independent contractors now represent more than 20 percent of the workforce, and that number is expected to reach nearly 50 percent within the next 10 years.Despite the proliferation of people engaging in freelance and contract work, however, the path to success is not always easy. Free Agent: The Independent Professional's Roadmap to Self-Employment Success details a pragmatic action plan to help you succeed in this new skills marketplace.Supplying practical strategies to help you get ahead of the change and become an in-demand resource with a steady stream of income, the book describes how work is changing and what is driving the growth of freelancing. Next, it explains how to get your new independent venture off the ground, how to find your first client, and what you need to know to avoid common pitfalls.To transition successfully from employee to free agent, you must have a plan to avoid the pitfalls and a support team to give you the expertise on complicated topics such as business structure, contracts, and accounting. This book is your guide to successfully navigating the transition.Detailing the tools and practices that will enable you to succeed as a free agent, the book includes case studies and interviews with those who have already made the transition. The book concludes by describing how to optimize your new freelance work style to make the most of your time and energy, so you can focus on doing more of what you love.

Defined as the total process of converting a line or process from one product to another, changeover will not only help your organization improve quality and flexibility, but it will save thousands and sometimes even tens of thousands of dollars per hour.Achieving Lean Changeover: Putting SMED to Work is about the practical implementation of the single minute exchange of die (SMED) philosophy developed by Shigeo Shingo at Toyota. Although the book is principally about changeover of manufacturing, packaging, and assembly processes, the general concepts and examples are also applicable in lighter industries that require turnover of processes including airlines, hospitals, operating rooms, and food service.Filled with practical examples, the book shares proven methods that can help you convert changeover downtime to productive uptime. It explains why reducing changeover time is important financially and provides a structured methodology to help you identify and implement improvement opportunities.The author addresses both the machinery issues with changeover/ SMED and the associated operational issues such as costs, waiting times, material movement, documentation, and product/component design. He also devotes a chapter to discussing, in detail, how to calculate the cost of changeover downtime, an area that remains a mystery to many.Taking a holistic approach to changeover, the text includes a chapter devoted to organizing changeover improvements, keeping them on track, and developing and implementing a formal changeover reduction program. Presenting time-tested methods and practical examples from a variety of industries, it offers you the opportunity to reduce changeover time and cost and provide your organization with the flexibility needed to better satisfy your customers in three important dimensions: product variety, responsiveness, and price.

In the global marketplace, no business is a self-contained island. No matter how effective your internal material movement, to be a future-thinking business, you must go to the next step and develop long-term supplier partnerships built on a dedication to continuous improvement and the basic concepts of Lean implementation. Lean Supplier Development: Establishing Partnerships and True Costs Throughout the Supply Chain provides step-by-step instruction on how to build partnerships of mutual improvement and success through supplier development. Offering the same advice that they have successfully applied to corporations across the globe, award-winning consultants Chris Harris, Rick Harris, and Chuck Streeter Provide criteria on how to choose suppliers that will make good long-term partnerships Demonstrate proven methods for employing Plan for Every Part (PFEP) to link your facility to the supply base Present a true cost model that eliminates guesswork when choosing suppliers to develop Show how to develop and maintain efficient information flow all along your supply chain Use real-world examples to cover likely contingencies Provide a sample quarterly supplier review that you can adapt for your own use Lean is a journey, not a destination. It requires flexible leaders at the helm who can readily adjust to ever-changing conditions and it requires like-minded partners all along the supply chain. Finding and developing these partners is not about good fortune, it is all about an uncompromising approach to continuous improvement and the application of systematic methods that will build working partnerships that broaden your definition of what is possible

Business-Driven IT-Wide Agile (Scrum) and Kanban (Lean) Implementation: An Action Guide for Business and IT Leaders explains how to increase IT delivery capabilities through the use of Agile and Kanban. Factoring in constant change, communication, a sense of urgency, clear and measurable goals, political realities, and infrastructure needs, it covers all the ingredients required for success. Using real-world examples, this practical guide illustrates how to implement Agile and Kanban in software project management and development across the entire IT department. To make things easier for busy IT leaders and executives, the text includes two case studies along with numerous templates to facilitate understanding and kick-start implementation. Explaining how IT and business management can work together to determine business goals that drive this IT-wide undertaking, the book arms you with actionable solutions that can be put to use immediately in any IT department, regardless of size.

While worker safety is often touted as a company s first priority, more often than not, safety activity is driven by compliance to legislation rather than any safety improvement initiative. Lean takes a proactive approach it is not contingent on legislation. A serious Lean effort will tear apart an old inefficient entitlement-riddled culture and build it into something effective. Lean Safety: Transforming your Safety Culture with Lean Management takes lessons learned from Lean and applies them to the building of a world-class safety-first organization. Based on 30 years of experience with successful implementation of continuous improvement, Robert Hafey focuses the power of Lean improvement on the universal topic of safety. In doing so, he shows how Lean and safety are linked; that the achievement of one is often dependent upon achievement of the other. In this book, written for managers and executives as well as workers on the line, Hafey: Challenges each stakeholder to think proactively and accept individual responsibility for safety Emphasizes that the building of a top safety program requires the building of a world-class safety culture Demonstrates how basic Lean tools are as applicable to safety as they are to Lean, such as the A3 problem-solving process and the facilitated kaizen blitz Removes fear from the accident investigation process so that root causes are addressed rather than hidden Establishes standards and metrics for safety management that are clearly definable and measurable Any lasting improvement must become both institutionalized and perpetually capable of adaptation. World class safety is not about writing correct rules, but more about righting the culture responsible for the well-being of its stakeholders. Listen to what Robert Hafey has to say about

The methods and concepts presented in the bestselling first edition revolutionized the approach to the management and control of Lean companies. Enhanced with extensive end-of-chapter exercises and downloadable resources with Lean accounting tools, the second edition of this preeminent practitioner's guide is now suitable for classroom use. Practical Lean Accounting: A Proven System for Measuring and Managing the Lean Enterprise, Second Edition explains exactly what it takes to transform a traditional accounting system to one that supports and enhances a company's Lean efforts. Defining the fundamental principles of Lean accounting, it demonstrates how to use them to identify and eliminate wasteful transactions. The book includes coverage of cell performance measurement, use of the box score, operational and financial planning, cost targeting, Lean accounting diagnostics, and value stream mapping. Retaining the easy-to-use format that made the first edition a bestseller, this updated edition includes: A new section on the use of value stream performance measurements in continuous improvement A re-written Target Costing chapter that emphasizes a value-based approach to the management of the Lean value system A Lean Accounting Diagnostic tool to help you assess progress and develop a plan for implementing changes Cutting-edge examples that illustrate implementation in accounting departments Downloadable resources with data from the ECI Value Stream Cost Analysis case study included in the text, Excel templates, and end-of-chapter questions with solutions The book contains a wealth of tools that makes it ideal for company training sessions and advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses. For each major example provided, two similar problems are included-one for instructors to guide students through and a second for students to work through on their own. An additional set of problems and questions for testing purposes are also available to instructors on the authors' website. Unfortunately, during the publishing process mistakes can be made that are not caught before the book is printed. Productivity Press takes great care to catch any errors prior to the printing stage.

The Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance defines safety as the maintenance of peace of mind. Without peace of mind, or the serenity brought about by a safe working environment, employees will be unwilling and even unable to focus their energies on production improvement. Thus, it can be said that all improvement begins with safety. Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award!A how-to manual on the proper integration of safety and environmental sustainability with Lean implementations, Lean Sustainability: Creating Safe, Enduring, and Profitable Operations provides a proven recipe for achieving safety and sustainability excellence. This book is the result of the author's two decades of experience implementing Lean; Safety, Health, and Environmental (SHE); and sustainability processes in the chemical, food, and consumer products industries. It unveils valuable lessons learned and little-known tips for eliminating waste and increasing process efficiency while reducing safety incidents and the overall impact on the environment.The text illustrates how to use the SHE Pillar as a gateway to continuous improvement, regardless of the improvement methodology you use. Bolstered with proven methodologies and real-world advice, it introduces novel approaches for achieving safety and sustainability excellence, including: Autonomous Safety'supplying employees with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to work safely Triple Zero the achievement of zero accidents, zero environmental incidents, and zero losses Green Value Stream Mapping the application of Value Stream Mapping to environmental and sustainability issues Although there are many books on Lean, sustainability, and SHE, few explain how to integrate these dynamic tools. Walking you through this process, this book supplies the tools to create a synergy that wil

This book gives healthcare leaders a practical guide to implementing the 4 key components of lean daily management system - 1. LDM boards; 2. Leadership rounds 3. Leader daily disciplines and 4. Lean projects. Although lean is not new to healthcare, effective LDM is just now taking hold with the best lean healthcare organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Leaders are realizing that sustaining their lean projects over time has proven to be a challenge without first addressing the organizations management system/model. LDM gives leaders a straightforward approach to do just that as well as improve their ability to spread and deploy lean to other areas of the organization and tie back to strategy.

Based on the author's years of experience working with Toyota's master teachers and with companies in the midst of great change, this book follows the story established in the Shingo Prize-winning book, Andy and Me: Crisis and Transformation on the Lean Journey.In a cool and readable style, Andy and Me and the Hospital: Further Adventures on the Lean Journey follows Tom Pappas's relationship with Andy Saito, a reclusive retired Toyota guru. Tom and Andy are pulled into a major New York City hospital in crisis. Can they translate and apply Toyota's powerful methods and thinking to save the hospital from disaster?Using a compelling novel format, the book demonstrates how to apply Lean thinking in a healthcare setting. It illustrates the situations, characters, and plant politics you will most likely face as you progress through your Lean healthcare journey. As the story unfolds, you will discover the way of thinking and behavioral changes required to implement proven Toyota Production System (TPS) methods, tools, and thinking in healthcare. You will learn: What a Lean transformation in a hospital should look like The overall approach you need to take The leadership and behavioral changes required How to improve processes and better develop and engage people How to build and sustain a Lean management system How to translate and apply Deming's "profound system of knowledge" This book provides clear and simple guidance on what it takes to successfully implement Toyota methods in healthcare settings. It shares helpful insights on how the different elements need to fit together to deliver measurable process improvement results. Just like its bestselling predecessors, this book includes study questions after each chapter to support learning and to facilitate discussion in workshops or classroom settings.

Many companies conduct Lean training and projects, but few have tapped the wealth of ideas in the minds of their staff like Baylor Scott and White Health. This book documents the path Steve Hoeft and Robert Pryor created at Baylor Scott and White Health and shares what worked as well as what didn t illustrating over seven years of successes and failures in detail.Providing easy-to-follow guidance for deploying Lean and TPS in healthcare, The Power of Ideas to Transform Healthcare focuses on what needs to be done and who needs to do it. It explains that the new "currency" for 2015 and beyond will be ideas ideas brought out in projects, problem solving, and especially in "Huddles." The most significant concept in this book is not huddles. Instead it's who builds the systems around them and why. Supplies the understanding required to build a Lean management system in any industry Explains how to align staff around common goals and cascade and translate those goals using Hoshin Kanri Demonstrates how daily Lean can reduce the cost of healthcare The authors share hundreds of pictures, forms, tools, and tips. Describing how to engage all staff and draw out their ideas in daily huddles, the book offers ways that staff can try out their ideas without spending too much time away from their work.Although the book focuses on healthcare, the management systems described, along with the lessons learned and best practices, will work in almost any industry.

Hospitals and health systems are facing many challenges, including shrinking reimbursements and the need to improve patient safety and quality. A growing number of healthcare organizations are turning to the Lean management system as an alternative to traditional cost cutting and layoffs. "Kaizen," which is translated from Japanese as "good change" or "change for the better," is a core pillar of the Lean strategy for today's best healthcare organizations.Kaizen is a powerful approach for creating a continuously learning and continuously improving organizations. A Kaizen culture leads to everyday actions that improve patient care and create better workplaces, while improving the organization's long-term bottom line. The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen is the perfect introduction to executives and leaders who want to create and support this culture of continuous improvement.The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen is an introduction to kaizen principles and an overview of the leadership behaviors and mindsets required to create a kaizen culture or a culture of continuous improvement. The book is specifically written for busy C-level executives, vice presidents, directors, and managers who need to understand the power of this methodology. The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen shares real and practical examples and stories from leading healthcare organizations, including Franciscan St. Francis Health System, located in Indiana. Franciscan St. Francis employees and physicians have implemented and documented 4,000 Kaizen improvements each of the last three years, resulting in millions of dollars in hard savings and softer benefits for patients and staff. Chapters cover topics such as the need for Kaizen, different types of Kaizen (including Rapid Improvement Events and daily Kaizen), creating a Kaizen culture, practical methods for facilitating Kaiz