St. Patrick’s Day – Luck of the Lean Six Sigma
You don’t have to be Irish or lucky to be successful. You can make your own luck using Lean Six Sigma.
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Improvement Insights Blog
Latest "Lean" Posts
Have You Fallen In Love With Lean Six Sigma?
I fell in love with Lean Six Sigma almost 30 years ago…but it takes some work to stay in love with Lean Six Sigma.
Are you willing to do what it takes to make Lean Six Sigma your Valentine?
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Hospital Costs a “Hungry Tapeworm on U.S. Economy” says Warren Buffett
I have been thinking for some time that someone would come along, start buying up hospitals and forcing them to adopt the Lean principles of Amazon and Six Sigma to achieve the “science and evidence” that Don Berwick has been challenging the IHI to adopt.
Warren Buffet has the money, but usually invests in “well-run” companies, not ones in trouble. An estimated half of all hospitals are in financial trouble (often because of the lack of Lean Six Sigma).
Bezos and Amazon have the operational efficiency needed in virtually all healthcare environments.
Dimon has a big bank.
They are all worried about the quality of healthcare and the rising costs.
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Using Lean to Do Your Taxes
I started using TurboTax to do my taxes years ago. I used to gather up my 1099s and W-2 and everything else and spend a whole day doing my taxes. Your taxes may not be as complicated as mine, but think of these forms as “work in process” (WIP). I was doing them in a big batch just before the filing deadline.
Then I started using a Lean approach. Whenever a W-9 or 1099 arrives in the mailbox, I input it into the software. By mid-March when the business taxes are finished, everything is in and my taxes are ready to file.
Are You Wasting Time in Six Sigma?
Are you wasting time in Six Sigma on unnecessary steps?
Here’s how to kick start your improvement efforts.
Top Down Change Doesn’t Work
Everyone seems to think that top down, leadership-driven is the only way to implement Lean Six Sigma. It’s not.
50 years of research proves that it fails half the time. Yep, 50% failure rate. That’s less than 1 sigma.
This type of failure is so common that it even has a name: The Stalinist Paradox.
Top Leaders Deliver Reliably
May-June 2017 HBR discusses the results of a 10-year study of what makes CEOs great.
Of the four traits, number 4, Delivering Reliably, was found to be the most powerful of the four essential behaviors. Reliable CEOs were 15 times more likely to succeed.
I have found that one of the most effective ways to deliver reliably is to use Lean Six Sigma to simplify, streamline and optimize performance.
Lean Insights from “The Founder” Movie
Early in the movie, the McDonald’s brothers describe how they came up with the concept for speedy service. It’s Lean.
They had too many menu items, so they decide to simplify down to burgers, fries and soft drinks. (Think Lean inventory.)
They go to a tennis court and use chalk to lay out a possible floor plan to deliver service fast. One brother stands on a ladder watching while the employees pantomime cooking burgers, fries and soft drinks.
They go through several iterations to converge on their final design. (Think value stream mapping and spaghetti diagramming.)
I think they might have done it faster with cardboard boxes, but I wasn’t there.
