Lean Management as Applied to Cores

Alice in Wonderland – The Red Queen’s Race
"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to
somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the
running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else,
you must run at least twice as fast as that!" [1]
Lewis Carroll
Isaac Asimov
Lean Management Research Cores
Jay W. Fox
Professor, Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Director of Research Infrastructure
Assoc. Director, Cancer Center University of Virginia School of Medicine
Paul Shin
Business Manager
Medical Education | SOM Research Cores
ps4sf@virginia.edu
Lean Applied to Advanced Microscopy Facility
Yalin Wang, Ph.D., Director; Stacey Guillot, Ph.D.
Review Process
•
Discuss workflow and issues
– What do your customers value
– Where are the improvement opportunities
•
Guided operational observation
– Visit the point where value is created
•
Map the value stream (Information and Materials)
– Depict the flow
– Identify decision points and schedule (ex. Where to cut)
– Identify areas of waste
•
Identify, prioritize and implement plan to remove waste
•
Measure outcomes: delivery; quality; cost; safety
Wastes Found
•
Inventory
•
Motion/Transport
•
Waiting
•
Defects
•
Unused Employee Creativity
– ex. Glass knife inventory
– resin
– Distance – material or worker
– Lab orientation or location
– Customer wait time
– Delay in deliverables
– Direct (instrumentation failure or sample mishandling)
– Indirect (unexpected results)
– Employees not given opportunities
– Misaligned job or skill placement
– Capacity (instrumentation, protocols, employees)
Outcomes/Changes
•
Improved work flow and service delivery
•
Direct communication across all parties in value stream
•
Identified specific customer value
•
Increased customer satisfaction
•
Implementing or future plans for more robust
inventory/specimen management system
– Improved specimen transport solutions
– Limited communication failures, increasing process efficiency
– Value in speed, accuracy and useful, timely data
– Improved survey results and feedback
– iLab, LIMS, etc.
Future Directions
•
Perform the Lean process with remaining SOM research
cores
•
Continue to practice the continuous improvement cycle
•
Provide a core-specific lean guidebook for cores with
easy to follow templates for improved business
workflow and enhanced customer satisfaction
Take Homes
•
Who is your customer and what do they value?
•
What activities process produce value?
•
What activities do not add value? Are they necessary?
•
If you can see waste, you can reduce it or remove it
•
Lean has a rich set of tools to help you do this, but the
key is your commitment to respect your people and
engage in continuous improvement.
Thank You