Charles Protzman

Joe McNamara

Dan Protzman

Although batching often appears more efficient than one-piece flow for individual tasks, the practice creates waste for other parts of the organization that more than offset its perceived benefits. A silent productivity killer, batching is an extremely difficult mindset to overcome and, as a result, numerous Lean initiatives have been destroyed by

A Guide to Understanding How Continuous Flow Maximizes Productivity and Customer Value

One-Piece Flow vs. Batching

Joyce Kerpchar

George Mayzell

Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award This practical guide for healthcare executives, managers, and frontline workers, provides the means to transform your enterprise into a High-Quality Patient Care Business Delivery System. Designed for continuous reference, its self-contained chapters are divided into three primary sections: Defines what Lean is and includes some interesting history about Lean not found elsewhere. Describes and explains the application of each Lean tool and concept organized in their typical order of use. Explains how to implement Lean in various healthcare processes—providing examples, case studies, and valuable lessons learned This book will help to take you out of your comfort zone and provide you with new ways to extend value to your customers. It drives home the importance of the Lean Six Sigma journey. The pursuit of continuous improvement is a journey with no end. Consequently, the opportunities are endless as to what you and your organization can accomplish. Forty percent of the authors’ profits from this book will be donated to help the homeless through two Baltimore charities. Praise for the book: ... well-timed and highly informative for those committed to creating deep levels of sustainable change in healthcare. — Peter B. Angood, MD, FACS, FCCM, Senior Advisor – Patient Safety, in National Quality Forum ... the most practical and healthcare applicable book I have ever read on LEAN thinking and concepts. — Gary Shorb, CEO, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare ... well written ... an essential reference in the library of all healthcare leaders interested in performance improvement. — Lee M. Adler, DO, VP, Quality and Safety Innovation & Research, Florida Hospital, Orlando; Associate Professor, University of Central Florida College of Medicine ... a must read for all Leadership involved in healthcare. ... I can see reading this book over and over. — Brigit Zamora, BSN, RN, CPAN, CAPA, Administrative Nurse Manager, Florida Hospital, Orlando

Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System

Leveraging Lean in Healthcare

Fred Whiton

Christopher Lewandowski

Steve Stenberg

Patrick Grounds

While there are numerous Lean Certification programs, most companies have their own certification paths whereby they bestow expert status upon employees after they have participated in or led a certain number of kaizen events. Arguing that the number of kaizen events should not determine a person's expert status, The Lean Practitioner's Field Book: Proven, Practical, Profitable and Powerful Techniques for Making Lean Really Work outlines a true learning path for anyone seeking to understand essential Lean principles. The book includes a plethora of examples drawn from the personal experiences of its many well-respected and award-winning contributors. These experts break down Lean concepts to their simplest terms to make everything as clear as possible for Lean practitioners. A refresher for some at times, the text provides thought-provoking questions with examples that will stimulate learning opportunities. Introducing the Lean Practitioner concept, the book details the five distinct Lean Practitioner levels and includes quizzes and criteria for each level. It highlights the differences between the kaizen event approach and the Lean system level approach as well as the difference between station balancing and baton zone. This book takes readers on a journey that begins with an overview of Lean principles and culminates with readers developing professionally through the practice of self-reliance. Providing you with the tools to implement Lean tools in your organization, the book includes discussions and examples that demonstrate how to transition from traditional accounting methods to a Lean accounting system. The book outlines an integrated, structured approach identified by the acronym BASICS (baseline, analyze, suggest solutions, implement, check, and sustain), which is combined with a proven business strategy to help ensure a successful and sustainable transformation of your organization.

Proven, Practical, Profitable and Powerful Techniques for Making Lean Really Work

The Lean Practitioner's Field Book

Although batching often appears more efficient than one-piece flow for individual tasks, the practice creates waste for other parts of the organization that more than offset its perceived benefits. A silent productivity killer, batching is an extremely difficult mindset to overcome and, as a result, numerous Lean initiatives have been destroyed by it. This book argues the case for one-piece flow over batching. It identifies the eight root causes of batching, the wastes created from batching, how batching drives the eight wastes, and the advantages of one-piece flow. One-Piece Flow vs. Batching: A Guide to Understanding How Continuous Flow Maximizes Productivity and Customer Value provides concrete arguments as to why batching, while sometimes necessary, is never the most efficient solution for most processes. It explains why flow, especially one-piece flow or continuous flow, should always be your ultimate objective when driving for increased productivity in any process. Using case studies to illustrate how to channel current mindsets toward one-piece flow as the preferred operation, the book is designed to support anyone involved in continuous improvement activities. It provides the tools and understanding you will need to overcome resistance to implementing flow and, in particular, one-piece flow processes—whether it be on the factory floor or in a banking office.

This book is part of a series of titles that are a spin-off of the Shingo Prize-winning book Leveraging Lean in Healthcare: Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System. Each book in the series focuses on a specific aspect of healthcare that has demonstrated significant process and quality improvements after a Lean implementation. Emergency departments have become notorious for long wait times and questionable quality of care. By adopting Lean manufacturing concepts, hospitals can turn the emergency department into a valuable service for the hospital and the community it serves. Leveraging Lean in the Emergency Department: Creating a Cost Effective, Standardized, High Quality, Patient-Focused Operation supplies a functional understanding of Lean emergency department processes and quality improvement techniques. It is ideal for healthcare executives, leaders, process improvement team members, and inquisitive frontline workers who want to implement and leverage Lean. Supplying detailed descriptions of Lean tools and methodologies, the book identifies powerful Lean solutions specific to the needs of the emergency department. The first section provides an overview of Lean concepts, tools, methodologies, and applications. The second section focuses on the application of Lean in the emergency department within the confines of the hospital or clinic. Presenting numerous examples, stories, case studies, and lessons learned, it examines the normal operation of each area in emergency departments and highlights the areas where typical problems occur. Next, the book walks readers through various Lean initiatives and demonstrates how Lean tools and concepts have been used to achieve lasting improvements to processes and quality of care. It also supplies actionable blueprints that readers can duplicate or modify for use in their own institutions. Illustrating leadership’s role in achieving departmental goals, this book will provide you with a well-rounded understanding of how Lean can be applied to achieve significant improvements throughout the entire continuum of care.

Charles Protzman

Books

Your next favorite book is out there