Lean in a Small Business is Big Business
Combine World
Charlie Smith, President
Charlie gave a great presentation, showing how Lean helped his business survive a rapidly changing market.
The nugget I took away from the presentation was from when Charlie was talking about value stream mapping a sales process. They would take a call from a customer for a part and then spend 20/30 minutes getting the part off a Combine to call the customer back to only hear the customer now didn't want the part. They remapped the process. Now when you ring up, before they go and get the part they take your credit card number to ensure you are serious. Brutal but an effective elimination of waste.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital
Patricia Somers, Senior VP Patient Services, Chief Nursing Officer
The journey that Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital has gone through is awesome. The nugget here is that people want to do the right thing. Bad processes conquer them. This was demonstrated by how carts ended up in the reception area because they didn't have a good home and then all the problems this created. Not because people were bad or lazy the system absorbs them. This was reinforced by the challenge they had in sustaining. Management loved and appreciated what they were achieving, but the processes they were having to work within were conquering them. The solution they are striving to achieve is the use of standard work for managers from VP down.
From both sessions one powerful Lean tool came out, the huddle board. More on that another day. In the mean time download the presentations and enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment