Part of the Lean Tools for Healthcare series, this user-friendly book will help to improve your understanding of kaizen. It describes exactly what a kaizen event is and details all the phases necessary for implementing continuous improvement practices in your healthcare organization.
Kaizen Workshops for Lean Healthcare
walks you through the steps of conducting an effective kaizen workshop—one that is well planned, well implemented, and well monitored. The information is presented in an easy-to-assimilate format. Numerous illustrations reinforce the text and margin assists call your attention to key terms, healthcare examples, and how-to steps.Throughout the book, you will be asked to reflect on questions that will help you apply the concepts and techniques in your own workplace. Defining the key concepts and elements of the "production" of healthcare services, the text delineates the differences between healthcare processes and the individual cycles of work that those processes link together. It also:
- Provides foundational information on kaizen and kaizen workshops—defining the key roles for success
- Explains exactly how to plan and prepare
- Presents examples of how to present workshop results and how to follow up
- Includes a concise summary of kaizen workshop steps
- Supplies a list of additional resources for learning more about the different kinds of improvement methodologies you might want to implement in your kaizen workshops
If your healthcare organization fully applies the steps detailed in this book, it will gain much more than the knowledge of how to conduct a workshop. Through kaizen, you will empower your employees to make positive change a reality. And incrementally, kaizen workshops will become more than isolated events—they will become the way all work is done in your organization.
Production Processes and Operations of Healthcare
Industrial Origins of Lean Healthcare
Production, Process, and Operation
What Is Kaizen?
Kaizen and Kaikaku
What Do You Need to Know to Fully Understand
How to Do Kaizen?
How Will Kaizen Change What You Are Doing Now?
What Is the Purpose of Kaizen?
Process and Operation
Value and Value-Added
Waste
What Is the Role of a Kaizen Workshop?
Benefits of Kaizen and Kaizen Workshops
How Does Kaizen Benefit Your Healthcare Organization?
How Does Kaizen Benefit You?
What Is a Kaizen Workshop and What Are the Key Roles for Success?
How Is a Problem Selected?
Cautions
Plan in Advance for Coverage
Put the Focus on Clinician and Staff Member Participation
Understand the Importance of Preparation and Follow-Up
Successful Kaizen in Action
What Are the Key Roles for a Successful Kaizen Workshop?
Workshop Leader
Sponsor
The Union Role
Process Owner
Communicating to the Whole Healthcare Organization about the Kaizen Workshop
Three Phases of a Kaizen Workshop
Phase One: Plan and Prepare
Select a Problem for Improvement
Elimination of Waste as an Overall Focus
Special Considerations in Choosing a Problem for Improvement
Implementing 5S
Implementing Standard Work
Eliminating Bottlenecks or Improving Setup Times
Implementing Continuous Flow, Line Balancing, or Kanban
Select and Prepare the Team
Select the Team Leader
Prepare the Team Leader
Select the Team Members
Other Preparations
Prepare the Area
Prepare Supplies, Equipment, and Support People
Gather Background Information
Schedule the Workshop
Phase Two: Run the Kaizen Workshop
Introduce the Team and Assign Roles
Introduce the Workshop Objectives and Procedures
Distribute Team Supply Kits and Resources
Conduct Lean Healthcare Training
Set Ground Rules
Understand the Current Situation in the Gemba
Observe the Selected Area and Gather Data
Review the Value Stream Map
Do Time Studies of All Operations
Develop Improvements
Generate and Capture Improvement Ideas
Facilitate Teamwork
Test Ideas and Implement the New Plan
Develop New Standards
Phase Three: Report and Follow-Up
Prepare a Presentation of All Data and Workshop Results
Present the Results
Cover Ideas That Have Not Been Fully Implemented
Build the Book of Knowledge
Circulate and Display Results
Follow-Up
Reflections and Conclusions
Phase One: Plan and Prepare
Phase Two: Run the Kaizen Workshop
Phase Three: Report and Follow-Up
Reflecting on What You Have Learned
Opportunities for Further Learning
Appendix
Further Reading
Useful Websites
Index
Each chapter includes a Summary and Reflections
Biography
Thomas L. Jackson
