When I introduce myself, I sometimes mention my graduate training in industrial engineering at Georgia Tech and describe how that part of my education and career helped shape some of the ways I think about leading and managing. In every organization where I’ve held a senior leadership position, I’ve been known as someone who likes to measure performance. There’s a simple reason for that: without a measurement and data, it is really tough to know if we’re making progress.
Here at GHS, we collect data and measure performance in lots of different ways including our organizational goals related to people, service, quality, growth and finance. We’re also measuring performance to improve quality and efficiency, enhance effectiveness of processes, and boost productivity.
Two approaches that I believe we’ll be talking about more and more are Lean and Six Sigma. Lean has its origins in the auto industry (specifically, Toyota Motors) in the 1940’s and focuses on elimination of “waste” from a process – making things more efficient. Lean focuses on reducing seven different types of waste: 1. defects; 2. overproduction; 3. excessive inventories; 4. excessive motion; 5. excessive processing; 6. transportation; and 7. waiting. In recent years, Lean approaches have been successfully used by many health systems to improve operations and processes.
Six Sigma focuses on measuring how well a process is performed and zeroing-in on opportunities to eliminate defects and variation from the process. The ultimate goal is to reach a level of process performance that is consistent and error free.
So why is it worth knowing about these methods of performance improvement? In recent months, I’ve been writing to you about our vision to transform healthcare for the benefit of the people and communities we serve. I have also been talking about the challenges GHS and other health care providers face in light of current economic conditions and an evolving health care environment. Bottom line: we are anticipating and experiencing change. I believe that the best way to deal with change is to prepare for and embrace it. One thing we can do is make sure that our performance is highly efficient and consistent. Performance improvement methods like Lean and Six Sigma will help us get there.
Back to AIDET. I’ll tell you that I think the duration for embracing performance improvement is the long haul – we’ll be continuously looking for ways to do our work more efficiently and effectively. I’ll also thank you for joining me in embracing change rather than resisting it. Working together, we’ll help GHS fulfill its mission to heal compassionately, teach innovatively, and improve constantly.
Here at GHS, we collect data and measure performance in lots of different ways including our organizational goals related to people, service, quality, growth and finance. We’re also measuring performance to improve quality and efficiency, enhance effectiveness of processes, and boost productivity.
Two approaches that I believe we’ll be talking about more and more are Lean and Six Sigma. Lean has its origins in the auto industry (specifically, Toyota Motors) in the 1940’s and focuses on elimination of “waste” from a process – making things more efficient. Lean focuses on reducing seven different types of waste: 1. defects; 2. overproduction; 3. excessive inventories; 4. excessive motion; 5. excessive processing; 6. transportation; and 7. waiting. In recent years, Lean approaches have been successfully used by many health systems to improve operations and processes.
Six Sigma focuses on measuring how well a process is performed and zeroing-in on opportunities to eliminate defects and variation from the process. The ultimate goal is to reach a level of process performance that is consistent and error free.
So why is it worth knowing about these methods of performance improvement? In recent months, I’ve been writing to you about our vision to transform healthcare for the benefit of the people and communities we serve. I have also been talking about the challenges GHS and other health care providers face in light of current economic conditions and an evolving health care environment. Bottom line: we are anticipating and experiencing change. I believe that the best way to deal with change is to prepare for and embrace it. One thing we can do is make sure that our performance is highly efficient and consistent. Performance improvement methods like Lean and Six Sigma will help us get there.
Back to AIDET. I’ll tell you that I think the duration for embracing performance improvement is the long haul – we’ll be continuously looking for ways to do our work more efficiently and effectively. I’ll also thank you for joining me in embracing change rather than resisting it. Working together, we’ll help GHS fulfill its mission to heal compassionately, teach innovatively, and improve constantly.
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