Archive for the 'quality' Category

We've all heard about kaizen. It's a practice for individuals, teams, and across process. People seem to take to it quite well in the factory and process environments. That's not the case in the project setting. At the TWI Summit, I was introduced to the Job Methods (JM) improvement approach. JM teaches how to see waste. JI in combination with JM teaches people the skills of improving.

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The CBS follow-up story to Katie Couric's interview, One Doctor's Crusade For Hospital Reform is a good read. CBS highlighted the everyday benefits of high capability processes on our lives. The interview opens this way with Dr. Berwick saying,

"Hospitals are very dangerous places. I don't know how to explain this to the public in a way that doesn't create too much fear. But they need to be realistic, and the technologies that help you can also hurt you — and they do it every single day."

Improving process quality and safety creates more time for engaging with people.

Studies indicate that 15 million patients are injured or get some sort of insufficient care each year. Some where between 44,000 and 96,000 die unnecessarily. Dr. Berwick and the 3,100 IHI partner hospitals have set out to change that. They are making their improvements in the same way that Toyota and other high-capability companies make their improvements. IHI is adopting Lean Six Sigma. Dr. Berwick goes on to say, Read the rest of this entry ¶

Let me start by saying I'm not taking a shot at doctors. In fact, I'm writing about IHI because I think we need to deliberately set out to learn from people outside our industry. Thanks to doctors like Dr. Berwick we are making great strides in the delivery of safe medical services. I'd like to reference tonight's CBS broadcast of IHI's initiatives. Unfortunately, the CBS website is way behind the times. Not only can't I find the broadcast video, but the site doesn't display correctly in either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Still, I hope you caught Katie Couric's interview. Dr. Berwick and IHI lifted my spirits; I'm sure it will lift your spirits too. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Don Berwick is on a mission to eliminate deaths from medical mistakes in hospitals. His 100k Lives campaign at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement is making great headway. And along the way many people are noticing., including Katie Couric. On Tuesday evening CBS News will showcase Dr. Berwick and his lean approach to healthcare improvement. Here's the CBS announcement:

"The Institute of Medicine recently estimated that nearly 100,000 people die every year due to medical mistakes. Couric profiles Don Berwick, a Harvard-trained pediatrician and public health expert, who is trying to make American healthcare safer. Read the rest of this entry ¶

LPSThe Last Planner System® is a lean approach to planning and delivering projects. It is based on a hierarchy of planning: should, can, will, and did. LPS is not a computer system. It is a set of protocols corresponding with the four above items: pull planning, look-ahead planning, task planning, and daily coordination. The Last Planner System is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute. Last Planner SystemThe Last Planner System® is a lean approach to planning and delivering projects. It is based on a hierarchy of planning: should, can, will, and did. LPS is not a computer system. It is a set of protocols corresponding with the four above items: pull planning, look-ahead planning, task planning, and daily coordination. The Last Planner System is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute.

Iget a kick out of the sparring that goes on between lean, Six Sigma, TQM, and Theory of Constraints (TOC). One of my colleagues puts it well, "TOC helps us focus on what needs improvement; Six Sigma helps us identify and control the source of waste; and lean helps us keep attention on always delivering more value to customers, employees, and consequently, owners.

For those of you interested in the Battle of Improvement Systems take a close look at the "ASQ Six Sigma black belt body of knowledge" take on Six Sigma vs. TQM. I really appreciate the contributions from the Six Sigma community; I just haven't figured out how to apply it to projects. Have you? For now, Ive placed my bet on project kaizen.

A Concern for improving quality and reducing material waste prompted one firm to develop an incentive plan for their craft workers.

Incentive Plans for Mexican Construction Workers

Salvador Garcia, et al

The aim is to reduce the waste of material while improving the quality of the finished work. They focussed on exterior wall construction. This included construction of block wall, the application of external stucco, and the application of internal plaster. They studied workers and then developed an index of productivity linked to quality standards. They developed a bonus plan that could increase base wage by as much as 45% for meeting all the quality standards while productivity was 40% above expected.

"Place attention on providing more homes rather than the productivity of the application of stucco"

Adopting this incentive approach increased productivity 30% and while achieving 3 of the 5 quality standards. Incentives were applied both on individuals and small crews. One surprising conclusion was they think they could make further progress with reducing material waste and increasing quality by providing incentives for architects and construction managers.

They are considering adding safety aspects to the incentive approaches. Currently, the head of the work is bonused on safety and housekeeping.

I wonder how this paper got on the agenda. It doesn't appear to advance our concerns for advancing lean project delivery approaches. Rafael Sacks wondered, too, about local incentives. He suggested that we should place our attention on providing more homes rather than the productivity of the application of stucco. He urged us to look at linking the throughput objectives to the compensation of workers.