Lean at GBMC
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"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now." This African proverb comes to mind as GBMC embarks on an organizational performance improvement plan. We have chosen the Toyota Production System – Lean. We are doing this at the second best time in our organization’s history, now.
Under the able guidance of Tressa Springmann, Vice-President & Chief Information Officer, GBMC has begun laying the foundation by first educating the executive staff and getting their commitment. We trained fourteen of our staff to become Performance Improvement (PI) Masters in order to facilitate the process. This week we took 150 of our managers and directors to a two-day off-site training program on Lean. We wanted to give them a working knowledge of Lean tools so that they can work with our front-line employees begin to identify improvement areas, to drive out waste and to be ready to support kaizen events when they occur.
The Toyota guiding principles, particularly fostering a culture that enhances and respects employees fit nicely with our greater behaviors of respect, excellence, accountability, teamwork, ethical behavior and results. Lean focuses on our employees; the ones closest to the work as those who can provide the best solutions for improvement. Our job is to give them the tools to make their work more meaningful and efficient. Studies of bedside nurses show that they spend less than half of their time in direct patient care. All too often they are caught up in spending time, clarifying orders, documenting items looking for things or just waiting. Our staff deserve a well-ordered workplace, that is clean and uncluttered, where everything that is needed easily accessible, to allow them to do the things that really matter to them and that is their passion for choosing to work in health care.
Chinese philosopher Lao-tsu said “the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. We have taken our first step.