Topics and Discussions That Help Clinical Laboratory Managers Improve Their Operations

Here is a valuable web site I want to share with the Sprick, Stegall & Associates blog readership.  A man by the name of Chris Coles, a Quality and Business Improvement Practitioner, who works for Babcock Defense in the UK, shared this web site with me through the LinkedIn Lean Six Sigma subgroup of Laboratory Management Professionals – Hospitals and Independent Laboratories. 

I always get reflective this time of year—laying to rest one year and birthing a brand new one.  The table below recaps some of the significant trends of 2011.

I gave a presentation this year at the Executive War College titled Achieving Maximum Gains in 4th and 5th Generation Multi-Hospital Laboratory Consolidations.  As most of you know, laboratory consolidations were very popular during the 1990s and early 2000s--many integrated delivery systems have saved millions of dollars by intelligent consolidation of certain laboratory tests.

I sometimes say that starting a lean journey is like starting a marriage.  In the first few months, the honeymoon phase, we are super-motivated and very disciplined about keeping the fire alive, whether it is lean or our new marriage.  We have that "lovin' feeling."  But then, reality sets in and the going gets a little tougher.  

For those of you just starting out on a Lean journey, these are the Lean tools you should use to perform a thorough assessment of the current state:

OK--here is the reality--when we, as managers, permit waste to remain in our value streams, we are literally throwing hard-earned money out the doors, vents, windows, cracks, and crevasses of our companies.  Think about it.  The following financial categories improve when we use the Lean philosophy and tool kit to improve value stream processes:

As a refresher, Customer TAKT time is the available amount of production time (in seconds) divided by the number of patient specimens tested during that time.  Click on this link to read more about this topic. The Power of TAKT

The real key to becoming a Lean thinker is to develop the ability to see and name the waste.  This quiz is designed to help you develop the ability to see and name waste.  Remember, value-adding activity happens when you change the form, fit, or function of the specimen or service to provide results or other information to your customer.  Everything else is wasteful activity.  If you can see it and name it, you can eliminate it-being able to see wastes is an excellent skill to develop.

Base line measurements are necessary to track process improvement gains over time.  These measurements are usually made during a current state assessment.  Lets look at each Lean waste and brainstorm at least three measurements that can be made and re-measured to show process improvement and waste removal.  As a review, the 8 lean wastes are:

Leslie Sprick, my business partner, and I do a lot of outreach planning in the laboratory industry.  As I think about 2010 and lessons learned during 2009, a few thoughts come to mind about Lab Outreach.  I decided to share five of these thoughts with you--the title of this article is 5 Truths about Lab Outreach.