KaiNexus: Continuous Improvement, Leadership, and More

Kaizen events are a big deal. They pull people away from their regular jobs for a number of days; they require training, leadership must make necessary resources available, and internal or external facilitation is needed. Not every improvement project should involve a Kaizen event. But there are some situations that call out for them. To determine if a Kaizen event is the right approach to a particular situation, ask yourself these questions.

A blog post from 12/30/16 by Mark Graban Toyota famously changed automobile manufacturing forever by focusing on continuous improvement, particularly on the never-ending process of waste elimination. Over the years, eight specific types of waste were identified. They are now referred to as the 8 wastes of Lean. While Lean was originally developed in the automotive manufacturing sector, every business experiences waste in one form or another. In fact, if you keep your eyes open, you’ll notice waste is all around you. Here are a few examples that our team has observed:

One of the many things we love about this time of year is the opportunity to reflect back on what we’ve accomplished (or survived) over the past twelve months. It’s also a great moment to set the stage for success in the year to come. If you practice the Lean management approach or plan to do so in 2017, one way to ensure that you get the most out of your improvement and waste reduction efforts is to invest in Lean software. Doing so gives you a number of advantages that will amplify your results and ease the path to achieving your most important goals. Here are some of them.

Two posts by Dr. Mark Jaben

Continuous Improvement Resolutions for the New Year As 2016 draws to a close, our thoughts turn to what’s ahead in the coming year. Many of us vow to hit the gym or lay off the Doritos. We might even resolve to be a little kinder and more generous in the months to come. This is a good time of year to make some business-related resolutions as well. If you are reading this blog, continuous improvement is probably something that matters to you, so we’d like to offer some ideas for continuous improvement New Year’s resolutions.

Presented by Jeff Roussel, Hosted and Moderated by Mark Graban In this webinar, you will learn: - The importance of measuring and reporting the ROI of continuous improvement - What metrics to use to measure your success - How to report your impact in a way that senior leaders will care about - How to justify increasing your budget for continuous improvement

Hosted by Mark Graban of KaiNexus, presented by Tania Lyon from St. Clair Hospital. In this webinar, you will learn: The preconditions for a successful rollout The levers for driving KaiNexus adoption How to develop and rely on the organizational helpchain to manage training Tania Lyon Dr. Lyon has spent the last 7 years leading St. Clair Hospital, a large award-winning community hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, through a “lean” transformation as their first Director of Organizational Performance Improvement. She has trained over 1600 hospital employees in Toyota principles and methods. Her own background in Lean healthcare comes from 5 years with the nonprofit Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) where she helped to develop their nationally acclaimed curriculum for health care professionals and coached lean improvement efforts in a variety of healthcare settings. Dr. Lyon is also interested in Lean Healthcare applications for low resource settings like hospitals in Malawi and Haiti. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and her BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from U.C. Berkeley and has two charming daughters who have thus far resisted all efforts to apply the Toyota Way to their rooms.

In episode #10 of our series, Greg Jacobson, MD & Mark Graban talk answer questions such as: - What would you tell high school juniors about healthcare improvement? - Why can it be hard for some experienced leaders to understand or embrace Lean? - How does one make time for documenting processes? - How can we identify the leading indicators (daily measures) at Gemba that contribute to lagging indicators (monthly or quarterly measures)? - What methodology would you recommend for an organization to get back to black from red, financially?

In this webinar, you will learn: How communication breaks down silos and to create a cross functional effort for continuous improvement The value of communication when it comes to educating vs. cheerleading How to leverage PMO and CI efforts for key strategic projects Get a snapshot of a new innovation team model that merges the best elements of CI and a PMO Originally Aired: September 20, 2016 from 1:00 - 2:00 pm EDT Length: 1 hour Hosted By: Mark Graban and Erin Edwards

Webinar presented by Harry Kenworthy of QPIC, hosted by Mark Graban and KaiNexus on September 13, 2016. Ten Commandments for Lean in Government (and Beyond) In this webinar, you will learn: - The top 10 commandments for creating a Lean culture - The benefits of creating Dynamic Daily Data Collection for greater employee engagement - The only 3 things Lean leaders truly need to do - The "True North" principles in a Thinking People System (TPS) - How to start a Lean organizational journey About the Presenter: Harry Kenworthy is Principal and Manager of the Quality and Productivity Improvement Center (QPIC, LLC). He worked with Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1983-85 on a series of seminars, and has spoken at over 90 conferences on Quality, Productivity, Lean, and Six Sigma. He has been published several magazines including Quality Progress, Purchasing, and Government Finance Review. Harry also had working relationships with Dr. Joseph Juran and Dorian Shainin. He was one of the first practitioners to apply Lean in the Government sector in the mid-90’s. Harry’s consulting work has included numerous Government processes that have been improved by removing waste, reducing costs, or increasing revenues in a variety of operational steps while reducing overall process cycle times and improving customer service. Harry is a founder of the Connecticut Quality Council and chaired CBIA’s (Connecticut Business and Industry Association) Manufacturing Council, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner from 1989-1991, and has held a CT Professional Engineer license and a Certified Quality Engineer designation.