Page 101 - Lean six sigma demystified

80 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

and their families that most businesses look like the night of the living dead. I’d like
to argue that in many businesses (e.g., health care) we’ve hit the end of do more
with less. It’s time to refocus on do more with what you’ve got. Offshoring, rising
costs, and thinning margins are going to force everyone to figure out how to
increase productivity and profitability everyday on an ongoing basis.
Lean thinking will enable you to do more with what you’ve got. Double your
productivity and triple your profitability without changing staff.
Focus on your product or service, not your people. Do more with less is
about reducing headcount more often than not. But reducing headcount when
your processes are clunky only exacerbates your problem.
I was observing an emergency room at a hospital. Their motto is: “treat ‘em
and street ‘em.” A teenager comes in with a broken nose. The doctor checks him
out and orders an X-ray. The patient waits while the clerk enters the order for
the X-ray into a system. The medical imaging department comes over to cor-
rect the order because it wasn’t right. After 20 minutes, the teen is finally
wheeled over to imaging for his X-ray. Then he’s wheeled back to await the
reading of the image by a radiologist. And 30 to 60 minutes later the doctor gets
the reading and makes a diagnosis and determines what treatment is required.
Doing more with what you’ve got is about simplifying, streamlining, and
mistake-proofing your processes so that the product or service flies through
your business. How do you do that?

Never set the product or service down. This is the essence of one-piece flow. If
you don’t set it down, you don’t have to pick it back up again. Don’t leave
the patient to enter the order. Start moving them through the next step in
their diagnosis or treatment.
Eliminate delay. Let the ER doctor do a quick read of the X-ray before the

radiologist does the formal reading.
Do things in parallel. While the X-ray order is being entered into the system,
start moving the patient to the imaging department or start bringing the
portable X-ray equipment to the patient.
Eliminate rework and mistake-proof the system. Fix the ordering system so that
the X-ray order can be entered correctly every time. Or, wheel the patient
with the doctor’s orders to medical imaging, and let them enter the order so
that it’s right the first time.
It’s time to shift your focus from your people to your product or service.
Simplify, streamline, and mistake-proof every aspect of the process so that the