Lean Six Sigma - You Don't Need More People

You Don't Need More People
home · products · services · search · view cart · contact

NAVIGATION

Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
2253 S. Oneida
Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224

We work with companies
that want to fire up their profits using
Lean Six Sigma

About once a quarter I get data from someone who is trying to prove that they need more people to do the job. This month it was a hospital trying to prove that more nurses result in better care. Intensive care units usually have one nurse for every two patients. Medical nursing units may have one nurse for every four, five or six patients.

Here's the facts: I've looked at lots of data from lots of hospitals. No matter how I look at it, unless the unit is woefully understaffed, there's no correlation between the number of patients per nurse and patient outcomes.

What really matters is how the unit is laid out and how much each nurse commutes every day. Commute time reduces patient care time.

Lean Principle: Walking is Waste!

When my mom was in the hospital recently, I noticed that nurses often came in to do something and then had to go back to the nurses' station to get something they needed. Why weren't the supplies in the room? Some were, but often they hadn't been replenished. Why not?

Lean Principle: Unnecessary movement of people or materials is waste!

You don't need more people, you need better systems and layouts.

Repair is Waste!

When I worked in the phone company, I got put on a project to prove that we needed more technicians in the field. I started to do a little analysis and found that 51% of all calls were for repair. Over 15% of the repairs were repeat repairs, meaning that it didn't get fixed right the first time.

I thought: "This is silly. We don't need more people; we need less repair!" I talked until I was blue in the face. Everyone told me that repair was a fact of life. It's too wet in Seattle, they told me. It's too hot in Arizona. It's too cold in Minneapolis.

Nonsense! They just wanted a solution that met their preconceived notions of the "right" solution: more people = better service.

I finally gave up and muddled along with the rest of the drones until the project failed.

You Don't Need More People!

You need:

Less avoidable delay
Less unnecessary movement
Less repair and rework

After you've fixed all of the problems in your "system", then you'll start to need more people to handle the growing demand from satisfied customers. Until then, simplify, streamline and optimize your business to prevent delay, defects and deviation.

Shortcut to Improvement
If you suspect there's problem in your business, but aren't quite sure how to analyze your data to focus the improvement, Jay can help. Send Jay your data about the problem and he'll analyze it for you. If he can't find an improvement story in your data, there's no charge. Click here for more info:

A Day with Jay - One-Day Lean Six Sigma Workshop
If you need help getting focused, consider scheduling a One-Day Lean Six Sigma Workshop at your company. Download a course outline and pricing information here or give us a call to schedule your session.

Hire Jay Arthur to train your staff in his one-day Lean Six Sigma Workshop! Contact Jay at (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com.

Order Lean Six Sigma System Now Want to increase your profits and slash costs by $250,000? Consider our risk-free trial of the Complete Lean Six Sigma System (#490)

To subscribe to this Ezine, go to http://www.qimacros.com/freestuff.html

Try QI Macros
FREE
For 30-Days