Blog author: Helen Titus, Marketing
Director, Digital Capture Solutions, Carestream
The
pursuit of less waste, reduced variances and cost-effective, quality care is driving
lean
six sigma projects at healthcare facilities across the globe—you may be
involved in your facility’s full-scale six sigma imitative or you may be
applying lean principles to simply improve the productivity of your department.
Lean
Six Sigma is not unique to providers. It’s impacting the whole healthcare
ecosystem, including vendors like Carestream. It is extensively deployed
throughout
our manufacturing organization and it is woven into the fabric of everything
that happens on the manufacturing floor.
But
the same lean principles that are eliminating waste on the shop floor are also being
applied at our front-end to help drive innovation in product development—ensuring
what hits hospital hallways has been designed through disciplined problem solving to help overcome our customer’s
challenges.
One
of the key tenets of Lean Six Sigma is analysis based on fact and direct
customer input. So during the very early
stages of developing the DRX-Revolution,
Carestream’s new entry into the DR mobile imaging market, a team of people went
on more than 50 site visits where they not only spoke with rad techs but also
observed them conducting mobile imaging exams.
These
weren’t just Carestream marketing and management people but rather the
software, hardware and electrical engineering team that was assigned the task
of developing a new way of approaching an old problem. How do we bring the very best image quality
to the sickest patients in the hospital (those in the ICU) in a way that is the
most efficient and easiest for the technologist? Seeing and hearing first-hand input
from the users empowered the designers to find ways to do things better. They even videotaped them during a routine
typical day and mapped out their work process.
The
engineers took note of the “waste” in the technologist’s workflow and
brainstormed ways to design the product that would eliminate these
non-value-added steps. Much the same way
that Lean is applied to a manufacturing process.
And
sometimes, they just listened.
One
tech frustrated by the fact that she couldn’t see driving the x-ray mobile
system down the hall said, “I wish the column was made out of glass.” The engineer took that input and although
making the column out of glass was not practical, designed a collapsible column
so when driving the system it simply just goes away and the tech has a clear
driving view. The result of applying the
Lean principles is a truly innovative product in a market space where no one
thought any further innovation could occur.
Applying Lean Six Sigma methodology is a commitment no matter where it’s deployed—from the hospital to the factory to product development labs. But ultimately applying the principles across the healthcare sphere allows us to work smarter, not harder—and provide more efficient higher quality care.
Are you involved in
an LSS project? I’d love to hear your experience.
