lean work improvement

Better processes for better care

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    string(1608) "Lean thinking may have been born in Toyota in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasn’t until after the year 2000 that a few hospitals began to explore its application to the healthcare industry (lean healthcare). These pioneering organizations came together to share their stories at the first Global Lean Healthcare Summit in the UK in 2007, which in turn triggered many more experiments around the world. Since then, interest has kept growing.

Some fifteen years on, we have hundreds of examples to learn from, from clinics and departments through to entire hospitals and even whole hospital systems. Not all early experiments succeeded, and we are still a long way from making lean a widely recognized way of working across the industry.
Healthcare providers around the world still face huge challenges, as ageing populations and unhealthy lifestyles boost the demand for healthcare faster than the growth of incomes and tax revenues from the middle classes. At the same time, the quality of care has not improved as much as the quality of other services in the economy, which is why more and more healthcare organizations are turning to lean.

Historically, lean healthcare ideas have been applied in large hospitals, but in the past few years we have started to see the philosophy adopted in earnest in many smaller organizations following a do-it-yourself approach that has generated many positive benefits. An impressive example is the Consorci Sanitari del Garraf near Barcelona."
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Case studiesOct 1, 2020
Ana Alvarez Soto
CASE STUDY – This Barcelona hospital began its journey with ambitious projects and is starting to see the fruits of its labor, with the pandemic acting as an unexpected but powerful catalyst for change.

Jishuken at a Coloplast distribution center

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FeaturesSep 10, 2020
Planet Lean
VIDEO - In February, a group of Lean Global Network coaches visited Coloplast's Parts Distribution Center in Hungary to help the local team improve the internal lead-time across the facility.

Smooth as silk

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The superiority of the Toyota Production System is now a recognized fact (Toyota has been profitable every year but one, for half a century), which means that today most manufacturing organizations around the world practice lean manufacturing thinking to some extent. The prevalence of this alternative way of thinking and managing in the manufacturing sector often generates confusion in other industries, in which people’s first reaction to improvement attempts is the now proverbial “We don’t make cars. Lean is a manufacturing thing.”

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Case studiesAug 20, 2020
Marcus Chao
CASE STUDY – An Esquel factory in GuiLin, China injected lean principles and practices into its processes to become more efficient and environmentally-friendly.

Our experience teaching lean at SulAmérica

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FeaturesAug 13, 2020
Luciana Gomes
FEATURE – What does it take to support a lean transformation from within? The author reflects on the role of the lean team in the turnaround of Brazilian insurance company SulAmérica.

Start with Kanban

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FeaturesAug 10, 2020
Michael Ballé
FEATURE – Using an effective example from every-day life, the author discusses why Kanban is the gateway to Lean Thinking – and not just a tool.

Our hotel after Covid-19

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Case studiesAug 6, 2020
Bart Rozema
CASE STUDY – Not even a pandemic can prevent a lean organization from learning: this hotel in Tenerife has decided to make the most of its forced closure to review and improve its processes.

Lean innovations for restaurants

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FeaturesJun 22, 2020
Alessandro Martemucci
FEATURE – The restaurant business has always been tough, but Covid-19 is now presenting it with new challenges. The author shares a few lean practices that can help restaurants develop competitiveness.

Lean for remote team management

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FeaturesJun 11, 2020
Angélica Regazzini
FEATURE – The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us all that the nature of the work has changed forever. The author discusses remote work and how Lean Thinking can help you make the most of it.

Marie Kondo and the art of home 4S

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FeaturesJun 4, 2020
Dave Brunt
FEATURE – The Japanese organizing guru has become very popular in recent years, but what does Lean Thinking tell us about her approach?

Facing the crisis with an appetite for improvement

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FeaturesMay 6, 2020
Catherine Chabiron
NOTES FROM THE VIRTUAL GEMBA – Despite a 40% drop in sales and the looming prospect of having to furlough part of its staff, this French company is finding in lean manufacturing an ally to fight the current crisis.

Learning fast in the crisis

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FeaturesApr 15, 2020
Catherine Chabiron
NOTES FROM THE (VIRTUAL) GEMBA – This small manufacturer is relying on Lean Thinking to keep the business running during the Covid-19 crisis, overcome the disruption in its supply chain, and even innovate.

The power of lean planning

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FeaturesMar 12, 2020
The TenneT team
FEATURE – A Dutch transmission system operator is using Lean Planning – built around the Last Planner System – to better manage its complex infrastructure projects.

Sorting out sourcing

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FeaturesFeb 20, 2020
Carolina Moraes, Priscilla Ribeiro, Alaine Soares, and Tatiane Zutin
FEATURE – The Sourcing team at insurance company SulAmérica tells us about how they were able to transform the process in their department in order to become more efficient in dealing with their workload.

Predictable vs unpredictable work

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FeaturesFeb 6, 2020
Dave Brunt
FEATURE – It is a common misconception that our work is too unpredictable to fit into a standardized approach. The author debunks this myth. 

Extracting waste from our process

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Case studiesJan 23, 2020
Rodnei Yogui
CASE STUDY – In a Brazilian insurance company, a team worked hard to streamline the revision of dental claims – a great example of Lean Thinking in an administrative process. 

Making hard work easier

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FeaturesJan 9, 2020
Mark Reich
FEATURE – Reflecting on some of the work he’s recently observed, the author discusses what lean thinking teaches us about making life easier for the value creators in our organizations.

Attorney at lean

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Case studiesNov 21, 2019
Eulalia Malimpensa
CASE STUDY – A boutique law firm in Milan has initiated a lean transformation to turn around its processes, improve service to its clients and make life easier for the team.  

Project management woes

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FeaturesNov 18, 2019
Severino Abad
FEATURE – What are the main problems people encounter when running a project? The author ran a survey with 126 people over two years and presents the results of his research in this article.