http://www.ithealthcareblog.com/archives/8 Achieving patient-centricity with LEAN and enabling technologies Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:50:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 http://www.ithealthcareblog.com/archives/8#comment-3 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:41:54 +0000 http://www.ithealthcareblog.com/archives/8#comment-3 Although statistics and the analysis of empirical data play a big role in LEAN thinking, the essence of LEAN is really communication. Deming's seminal work, Out of the Crisis, brings better communication to the forefront of the transformation going on at LEAN companies. For example, when Deming says "drive out shame and blame," he is clearly not referring to a statistical analysis. Of course, one could use low production numbers or high error rates, as information to berate one's employees, but negative communication is the exactly the form of bad communication Deming seeks to eliminate. LEAN is all about working as a team to identify waste and errors, and focusing on the processes that produce waste. We should blame the process NOT the people, and constantly work to improve processes. Whether we rely on new semiotic systems or simply compose friendlier emails, we will be well on our way to building a truly LEAN system within our respective organizations. Although statistics and the analysis of empirical data play a big role in LEAN thinking, the essence of LEAN is really communication. Deming’s seminal work, Out of the Crisis, brings better communication to the forefront of the transformation going on at LEAN companies. For example, when Deming says “drive out shame and blame,” he is clearly not referring to a statistical analysis. Of course, one could use low production numbers or high error rates, as information to berate one’s employees, but negative communication is the exactly the form of bad communication Deming seeks to eliminate. LEAN is all about working as a team to identify waste and errors, and focusing on the processes that produce waste. We should blame the process NOT the people, and constantly work to improve processes. Whether we rely on new semiotic systems or simply compose friendlier emails, we will be well on our way to building a truly LEAN system within our respective organizations.

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