Articles by: Ankit Patel
03/16/10 by Ankit Patel | Lean Public Relations | No Comments »
I was having a conversation the other day on Twitter with @LeanBlog and @flinchbaugh talking about St. Luke Hospital System’s Lean efforts that were publicized. The article is a just a press release that is pretty much just bragging. Fellow Lean practitioners will attest that Lean is about serving the customer and adding value. How does barging about Lean efforts help the customer and in this case the patient?
My counterpoint is that it does add value for the patient but just not immediately. There is value in bringing the benefits to the lime light. When other hospital systems see the benefits they too will improve. By educating the marketplace you move the market to be more efficient just to be competitive with others. In the end a patient will be given better care at any given hospital.
Lean is traditionally found in operations but is very applicable in PR. What does the customer find valuable when it comes to PR? Here are some Lean PR ideas:
-Make yourself visible. If you are better serving the customer then let them know.
-Don’t brag but educate
-Educate the customer how your operations will benefit them (less wait times, less errors, higher satisfaction)
-Get feedback from your press releases. By getting feedback you can change future PR campaigns.
-Above all put the customer first
What else would you suggest? How would you add more value to PR?
03/15/10 by Ankit Patel | boyd's law, keep it super simple, Occam's razor | No Comments »
Occam’s razor states that the simplest solution is usually the best solution. Occam’s razor is in full effect with business problem solving. Do not over complicate a solution. I worked at a plant that assembled computers from computer parts that can be found off the shelf. The factory that was designed was very complex with lots of automation and miles of conveyor with an ASRS (automatic storage and retrieval system) to hold incomplete orders that were not complete. The productivity was roughly 1.5 computers per hour per employee. Not bad but most computer savvy people can replicate the same feet or better at home without all the extra equipment.
The company then when through a Lean transformation and Occam’s razor came into full effect. If it wasn’t the simplest solution we didn’t use it. After gutting all the equipment, removing the ASRS, and streamlining the entire process the productivity shot up to over 3 units per hour per employee. By shifting to the simplest solution we were able to double productivity. With a Lean transformation productivity gains are not the goal but a by product of doing the right things. Perform a culturally correct Lean transformation and you will see positive results. This also translates to smaller everyday problems.
At a veterinary clinic we had issues with missing crucial steps when checking in patients that lead to rework the next day to fix errors. The fixes would typically take around 1-2 hours to fix. There were many solutions the staff came up with but the two that stood out were a checklist and a fully automated solution. The fully automated solution would require significant capital time while the checklist could be implemented the next day and costs virtually nothing. We decided to implement a check-in and check-out checklist to verify all the tasks were being followed. This simple solution reduced errors to virtually zero. It also allowed to help with cross-training other employees in the clinic and help train new employees quicker.
Keep your solutions simple but also implement your ideas. A partial solution implemented 100% is better than a full solution implemented 0%. With implementation you get information with information you can improve solutions. Keep your solutions simple and experiment with solutions.
Keep It Super Simple (KISS)
03/12/10 by Ankit Patel | fac | No Comments »
90% of consumers trust peer recommendations*
Only 14% trust advertisements**
*Source: July 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey
**Source: “Marketing to the Social Web,” Larry Weber, Wiley Publishing 2007
Why not spend more time on building customer satisfaction instead of spending time and money on advertisement?
03/10/10 by Ankit Patel | what to standardize, wiki wednesday | No Comments »
Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.
“What do you standardize and how to you figure out what to standardize; how much is too much?”
Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:
The simple answer is standardize what makes sense. You have to balance flexibility with standardization. If you have a pretty predictable job then up to 80-90% of your tasks can be standardized. If you own your own business then you might want only 10-20% of your tasks standardized. Either way you should experiment with standardizing. Even creative types can benefit from standardizing. It makes sure you don’t forget to do important things like fasten your seat belt, send out emails, or go to the gym. It may seem counter-intuitive but you can actually get more work done when you standardize your tasks.
For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/
03/09/10 by Ankit Patel | lean medical clinic | No Comments »
I few weeks ago I wrote an article on why being the best still isn’t good enough talking about how a medical practice that is in the top 2% of the country still had room for improvement. The issue is that there is no motivation to change but as a patient it takes me an hour to visit the doctor for something that takes only 30 minutes. Medical clinics typically have three main concerns:
I) Patient Care
II) The Bottom Line
III) Quality of Life for the Doctor(s)
A Lean business system address all of these concerns. In a Lean business system you’ll have a 4 prong attack to your problems:
1) Optimize Patient Flow
2) Remove Waste
3) Engage Employees
4) Continuous improvement
Optimize Patient Flow: Most clinics are setup up by departments. You have a font office (receptionist, assistants), nurses, and doctors. Optimizing patient flow comes from building around the patient. Find how patients can flow smoothly from one step to the next with little or no wait.
Remove Waste: Waste is anything the patient isn’t willing to pay you to do. Some examples include waiting, come back in to the office because the diagnosis is wrong (this is a waste but because of insurance payments it may be more profitable to to have patients come back for revisits), excess walking for your staff. With removing wastes the small incremental changes make a huge difference in the long run.
Engage Employees: There is a lot of goodness in engaging employees. Engaging employees is a factor in motivating employees without money. If employees are engaged you are likely to have to come up with solutions yourself. You have the team come up with solutions after giving them problem solving training.
Continuously Improve: The goal is to be a little better today then you were yesterday. Small incremental improvements add up over time. In combination with optimizing flow, removing waste, and engaging employees you develop a business system that will put you far ahead of the competition.
03/08/10 by Ankit Patel | motivating employees | No Comments »
Only 1 in 5 employees go the extra distance to help a company succeed. There is a common myth money motivates people. The reality is that motivating employees without money is actually better and sometimes easier. So what are the factors that motivate employees? In 2008 Businessweek had an article that listed the factors that motivate employees:
-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future
Money, while still being a factor, isn’t the most important factor in motivating. A Lean business system that is implemented correctly actually takes care of all of the factors.
Empowerment to make decisions: In a Lean business system you not only empower your people to make decisions but actually expect they decide and come up with solutions. How would you feel if you couldn’t change the things you knew were broken? It can be come very de-motivating and worse people tend to become drones instead of thinking productive employees.
Opportunities for Growth/Development & Variety: Cross training is a tenant of a Lean business system. Not only do you have a flexible workforce but you have a opportunity to grow your employees. How many times have you had attendance issues? How many times has that caused issues at work? By cross-training you eliminate the headaches of light attendance issues as well as provide a growth path for employees.
Mutual support and respect: Respect for people is a cornerstone for any Lean business system. A typical meeting would be an open forum where you list the issues and then everyone pitches in for solutions. Ideas are tossed around and when a fix to a root cause is found it’s implemented. It doesn’t matter where the solution comes from management other the front line. It does matter that everyone works as a team. From projects that I have done this factor was the most important when motivating employees without money.
Sense of purpose: Your goals are all aligned and there is a clear bar that is set to achieve. By giving a clear target employees and management have a sense of direction and purpose towards a goal. Sometimes ones purpose comes from providing for his or her family. If you provide a secure work environment motivating your employees becomes easier. Sense of purpose comes without money so find what is important to your employees by talking to them.
Desirable future: In a Lean business system you are positioning your company for growth. A prosperous company with lots of opportunity and a great culture that respects people is where people want to work. This ties into sense of purpose as well in the fact that you are motivating employees without money. As the company grows you can reward people as you see fit.
Motivating employees without money becomes easy with a Lean business system. There are many other added benefits of a Lean business system including lowered operating costs and more sales.
03/05/10 by Ankit Patel | factoid, multitasking | No Comments »
Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to accomplish a task and makes up to 50% more errors.
03/03/10 by Ankit Patel | wiki wednesday | No Comments »
Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.
“How do you engage people in your company to be more than just a ‘worker bee'”
Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:
Number #1 thing to do is have respect for your people. Value their opinions and listen to their ideas. Implement ideas quickly and you’ll see a more engaged workforce that wants to keep improving their work areas.
For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/
03/02/10 by Ankit Patel | how to start lean | No Comments »
During my latest trip to one of my favorite stores Trader Joe’s I got to experience their bell system. There is only 1 or two dedicated checkout lanes and then when demand increases the bell is run 1x alerting more people to the front each time. Ring it 2x and a manager will come help you at a lane. 3x means something as well but I haven’t experienced it yet.
Talk about a Lean system! Cross trained employees adjust to changing demands and escalate right when there is a need and it’s a clear signal. All in the name of customer flow.
Why not apply this concept in your business? The way you implement it might be different but here are the principles:
1)Cross train your employees
2)Have a clear signal to help guide everyone on their assignments
3)Have standard rules for operating
How does your business adjust to changing customer demands?
03/01/10 by Ankit Patel | how to start lean, small and medium business | No Comments »
Traditionally Lean is rooted in the operations side of the business. In larger businesses this is a great place to look to start a Lean transformation but what about in small and medium businesses? Sales and marketing are an excellent place to improve business.
In small and medium businesses just like any other business you start where there is a need. From my experience revenue is usually a significant need for any business. Sales and marketing are great places to start if the process are not systematic. Here are some tips on getting started with Lean in sales and marketing and I’ll use a veterinary clinic where I have done a project:
Marketing
Standardize your efforts: You can’t see what you don’t measure in marketing and you have to be consistent. EXAMPLE: At Caudle Vet Clinic in Nashville they were currently answering posts on a local online community group about pets. The responses were done on a sporadic basis and we changed to it to be done daily. They see 1 client every other day from just a daily 15 minute posting to the online community group. Caudle Vet now also tracks their efforts by asking the clients “how did you hear about us” or we can tell by the coupons they bring in. By tracking they can spend their marketing dollars wiser.
Sales
What does the client find valuable and focus on those items: Use the 80-20 concept of find the items that your customer base finds most valuable. EXAMPLE: Veterinary customers want their dogs to live a long high quality of life. At Caudle Vet Clinic in Nashville if the dog is older than 8 years old then they ask them if they want the “senior package” were we do some blood work to catch issues well before they occur extending the dogs life and quality of life. The acceptance rate has been 90% just by asking because it is a service that the clients find valuable.
These are just two quick ways you can start implementing Lean into your small or medium size business.
How do you apply Lean to sales and marketing?
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