DailyKaizen

I have had some interesting discussions lately with some leaders from supporting departments about how they can think and work differently in assistance of our clinical and administrative production processes. Many of these departments have had success over the last year applying LEAN within their functions to improve quality, cycle time and efficiency. As these leaders have become more experienced in apply LEAN principles they have begun to realize that to bring about transformation they need to change their approach. Working up their functions may produce some low hanging fruit in the short-term, but it is a limited approach in the long-term. The real benefit will occur when these supporting departments begin to reorganize and align their structures and their work to support clinical and production departments where the true value added work takes place. This is both exciting and freighting to these early adopters. This change in approach will challenge long-standing batch and queue practices. It will challenge all of the current finance, measurement, planning, and human resource systems. It will put them at risk with their peers and leadership that is inexperienced with this new way of thinking.

I wonder how they will proceed? The cultural tension between the “old” and the “new” way of thinking and doing has begun and will only grow. What a great time to be in this organization.