What in the name of God is Lean six sigma anyway?

Nelbert wrote: »

Not on Facebook for start and if you think that will have the sort of major impact required you’re kidding yourself. It’s a start but you’re talking 10+ million for each of the major acute hospitals

How much are NAS spending on the project?

They're in the acute hospitals too

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/meet-emily-ireland-s-first-digital-baby-1.2893670

Nelbert wrote: »

Maternity only. Yet another silo

So why don't you tell us exactly how the €40 million project should be organised? How much research have you done into the project so far, just to save me posting details link by link?

Nelbert wrote: »

The point was someone made it part of a simple lean project.
It’s not, it’s a massive undertaking with multiple important stakeholders at each local and national level.
Galway award a contract to digitise patient records around late 2015..... started scanning in the last few months (3 ish years to scan a page!). These projects are massive undertakings and are an organisation wide change and require some serious funding.

Not to minimise the good work that has started but we are years and some political decisions (rather than local ones) away from dedicated funding being provided and without ringfenced funded (like that from the maternity projects) it’ll take years

It's a long way from a 'simple lean project'. It is indeed a massive undertaking with multiple important stakeholders. I don't know much about it, other than having seen Richard Corbridge speaking about it a couple of times when he was in the CIO role, but it is a huge project - with a team of about 40-50 involved and a budget of tens of millions.


It includes the National Children's Hospital, Primary Care IT, Cancer Care eHealth, Open Data, ePharmacy, Maternity, Laboratory, Radiology and more.


The Case Studies include St James Scan for Surgery, Galway Digital Notes and Order Sets (a lot more than scanning files), Pharmacy eDischarge, ST James Self Service Check In, St Vincents Messaging, Radiology Referrals, Blood Tracking, GP Referral and Laura Lynn.


Honestly folks, this is a big deal.

Skidfingers wrote: »

Apologies about bumping an old thread but I am currently doing the Green belt.

I'm just wondering is there any tips or how people got on with it? What was the exam and project like?

who are you doing it with? usually a project

Skidfingers wrote: »

RP Consulting. Have you done it? How'd you find the project and exam?

Have a green belt, Lean expert, Lean Masters and currently doing a master black belt.

Never heard of RP consulting, but most green belt programs follow the same basic principles.

They will introduce you to the lean tools and use case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness. You then complete a project showing how you implemented these tools in your place of work.

Id say these have 99% pass rate so once you keep your head down you will be grand

Skidfingers wrote: »

What did you do the project on? What was the project like?



This help much appreciated!

For the Green Belt, that was about 10 years ago now, i had a look at reducing cycle time in one or our process's.

We basically used a "KanBan" to store material on the floor rather then the warehouse which meant the operators could take the material at point of use so there was not waiting or excessive motion and transportation. Simple idea but worked well.

For the project just think about doing a small improvement well that uses a couple of the tools

Skidfingers wrote: »

Will do thanks for the advice. Did you have to do an exam at the end also?

No there was no exam as far as i can remember

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

Irishder wrote: »

Far more useful to you

Meaning?? I don't use either in my current role. But I know what I meant with regard to the poster. What did you mean?

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

They are very different - one is about making processes more efficient, the other about project management.
If it is useful or not depends on the circumstance, and the role you have.

Stovepipe wrote: »

Lean works very well in some manufacturing settings but it's a pain in the arse when your management tries to force it into an airline, which is not a manufacturer, in case anyone missed it. It's good for tool control, keeping things tidy and so on, but for running an airline, it's a waste of time.

Having started in aviation maintenance and working for a longtime in manufacturing, I think I can understand where you are coming from, but I'd tend to disagree. I wouldnt say I deal with this stuff directly but Im still in maintenance, I can see wasteful steps/tasks that are ingrained in people, some of the biggest downfalls in any workplace are laziness to even do basic tasks or do them right for task that are essential. I used to think there was only so much improvement that could be made, that said, I'm inclined to think there is less room for improvement in aviation, because in comparison to other organisations Ive worked in, the standard of training/background is higher/more similar for the type of work required and the work carried out to a better standard, whereas, Ive seen guys come straight out of college, thinking they are experts and would have no practical hands on experience in maintenance or troubleshooting, I often find myself thinking, this just would not ever happen with aircraft, but I keep my mouth shut, because they dont know, becuase they havent the background and dont care, and in a lot of cases it is just stuff that wont stop production.

Nelbert wrote: »

I’m not disputing the impact.

I’ve worked on some large scale projects moving towards EPR and some of the financial incentives in terms of realisable cost savings are extremely appealing. I’ve done full cost benefit analysis (with cost savings intentionally underestimated) and despite the scale of investment it does payback.

It requires significant upfront cost however and navigating a lot of vested interests.
My personal view is centralised funding from the HSE / DOH which is ringfenced will make EPR happen anything short of this will leave us in status quo.

Full disclosure; I work in a public hospital, I WISH we had an EPR (doing an MSc in Data Analytics so the opportunities it would open up for improvement and analysis is quite something!). But from previous jobs I can understand the mixture of political intervention, vested interests and unions preventing such a large investment. Ironically I think it will be a political intervention that ultimately leads to the ring fenced money that’s required to make it happen.

The efficiencies and analytical opportunities it would create would I feel have one of the most significant positive impacts on patient care in both acute and community care if done properly.

Basically the clinical secretary in OPD example having time wasted with physical charts is indeed a symptom of a significant systematic waste but it’s not something that could be solved within the confines of a lean project within the OPD in isolation..... it’s a massive transformational project for the entire organisation.

My workplace uses a what could be described as a CMMS, while I think its good in a maintenance arena, I am not completely convinced thats as suitable completely for medical records, it might reduce waste but that doesnt necessarily mean its better. Id really think someone that is an adherent of any Lean tool, should also have a background in the area they are trying to make change, because it is easy to gloss over very important concerns that affect real world situations.

Eduard Khil wrote: »

Thread like this really is counterintuitive to the meaning

Lean Six Sigma is a method that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation. Wikipedia

The biggest failure Ive experienced is outright laziness, and a business so busy falling over themselves trying to make improvements that they cant see, sometimes small changes can reap huge rewards, it depends on the type of work/business as to what can be achieved and the type of people in an organisation. Some places Ive worked in dont know about it and are hugely disorganized, others over do it and either waste time at it, dont follow through, change or remove useful tasks or throw everything out and think some new methods are just going to fix all ills.