While HPP strives to go “above and beyond” in guiding organizations on their Lean journey, there are some elements of the transformation process that must be owned by the organization’s leadership in order to create long term, sustainable change within the organization.  Outlined below are both the short and long term expectations for the leadership involvement necessary to move your Lean transformation toward success!  When supported properly, these actions will bolster your Lean efforts and can accelerate the desired culture change.

Short Term Expectations

Assign a Dedicated Lean Resource:

Designating a dedicated Lean resource well integrated into the ‘local’ organization is essential to creating a sustainable Lean culture. If you have difficulty in identifying a Lean resource, HPP provides clients materials to assist in the search (i.e. sample job descriptions, etc.) and is available to participate in the interview process. Designation of this individual sooner rather than later, is the best way to maximize the economic benefit of the Lean effort.

Form a Lean Steering Committee:

A Lean Steering Committee should ideally be formed prior to the execution of the first Kaizen activity.  The steering committee should include but is not limited to:
 - At least 1 representative/champion from the Admin team
 - The dedicated Lean resource
 - A Quality and/or Risk Management representative
Additional members could include operations and financial management personnel. The committee should be scheduled to meet monthly and participate in all 30, 60, and 90-day reviews of past Kaizen activities.  The committee should also assist team leaders in breaking down barriers to reaching Kaizen goals across the organization.

Implement Regular Process Performance Tracking:

Ongoing process performance (aka results) tracking for Kaizen and reVIEW© (Value Stream Mapping and A3 Problem-solving) activities is not only vital to sustaining the initial success but also the identification of implementation issues that need to be revisited.  As part of each activity, process performance targets are determined based on the team’s trials of the Future State processes.  While HPP assists with developing results tracking processes as much as possible, we have seen greater ownership developed when this task is coordinated through the site Lean resource and the organization’s Lean Steering Committee.

Go to the Gemba Regularly:

Gemba is a Japanese term meaning “actual place” or the location where the ‘regular’ process work is happening.  An essential part of any Lean transformation is the dedication of time by the leadership team to go to where front line work is being performed. “Going to Gemba” provides leaders the opportunity to:
• Observe the Environment, People and Processes
• Establish relationships and trust between Leadership and Staff
• Show management commitment to Lean initiatives
• Review the process performance measurements
• Motivate staff and drive accountability within the organization
• See what written or verbal reports cannot reveal

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate (Share Results / Success):

Just as initial communication is important to “jump start” a Lean Transformation, ongoing communication of results and successes must also be a priority.  It is important that information on Lean activities not be limited to just Kaizen and reVIEW© activity participants. Including results in facility newsletters, associate ‘forums’ / town hall meetings as well as creating high visibility Lean displays throughout the facility have all proven to add momentum to Lean initiatives.

Long Term Expectations

Align Business Goals & Objectives with the Site Lean Strategy:

Soon after you begin your Lean journey, the site must begin to align the goals & objectives of individual Lean efforts with those of the overall business. While this will ultimately be achieved through implementation of Policy Deployment in Phase 2 of your Lean journey, moves made early in the transformation process to better align objectives will accelerate this process.

Give Your Lean Effort a Budget:

We strongly encourage our clients to consider the addition of Lean activities in their next planning/budget cycle.  This not only allows the organization to more easily track the impact of its Lean work, but also creates a model for sustainability by budgeting the time required to continue improvement efforts.

Develop Lean Minded Employees:

A final item for consideration is the identification of talent within your organization with the potential to become reVIEW© coaches and Kaizen facilitators.  As resources are freed through Kaizen activities, a portion of that benefit must be reinvested in growing your Lean capability.  HPP is available to guide you in the qualities and characteristics, which typically make for good “Lean Thinkers”.

This week’s blog was written by HPP consultants David Krebs & Marshall Leslie.  Both David & Marshall oversee various HPP projects and Lean Healthcare transformations for clients throughout the USA.