Bureaucratic solutions too-little too late to save lives
Today I read an article in the NP that needs a lean response. Tom Blackwell's article puts light on a serious problem in health care: confusion over similar looking labels has led to mistakes causing death. The tragic deaths of 2 people in Calgary who while undergoing dialysis were given deadly potassium chloride instead of harmless sodium chloride solution; a mistake traced to the extreme similarity of the packaging and labelling. The article quotes pharmacy professor Neil MacKinnon: "If you ask any kind of front line nurse or pharmacist they would say 'Gee, this isn't rocket science, why can't they make labelling clearer- put things in different size fonts and colors?' It's a big problem we've known about for a long time but there doesn't seem like a lot of impetus for change."
The government and industry are working on a standard bar code system for use with scanners - a highly expensive solution that will take "years" to implement. Health Canada is also being asked to vet labels and packaging that may lead to mistakes. They are committing $2 million to a system for REPORTING incidents and developing preventive measures! I am sure the reporting system will comfort the next family that loses a loved one.
This example screams for simple and immediate implementation of lean methods. It is not rocket science. Although the bureaucracy is doing its "best", action on this problem need not be delayed. Error proofing is a basic concept of lean. You simply devise ways to completely prevent common and likely errors. A lean manufacturer would immediately address this issue and market the improved safety. Luckily the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices in Atlanta has begun positive work with drug suppliers but it is clearly not moving as fast as is needed. Interestingly they have a system standard of TALLMAN letters for labels that emphasize the differences between similar medicines right on their label. Why is this not industry standard?
Interested lean leaders would simply ask the front line workers to identify the most likely confused medications. Thereby creating an immediate database of improvements to tackle, heading off mistakes in the short term. I bet there are many simple (and cheap) error proofing ideas on the minds of health care workers waiting to be engaged. Lean is about making improvements right now using the expertise of the front line workers. It is ironic that the bureaucracy has such a hold on "improvement" that even simple changes that save lives can't be made quickly. Isn't saving lives quickly is what health care is all about? I would start with those on the front line, not waste time installing long term costly "solutions" or developing a reporting system that costs more than the solutions to most of this issue would. It is sad that lean in health care at the national level in Canada is not visible at all.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Low Cost Labour Not Enough for Chinese Manufacturers
An item in the Financial Post by David Barboza caught my eye today. China's "industrial miracle" is learning quickly to reshape itself as cheap labour dwindles. The predicted future strengthening of the yuan, and wage inflation facing manufacturers in the large industrial zones have them looking to go "to the next stage of development" by upgrading facilities and service. Some factories are moving inland where wages are 30% cheaper. Some are going offshore to other countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam where labour remains cheap. A Chinese scholar hopes "that China's comparative advantage as a low-wage producer does disappear - the sooner the better". It is realized that some factory investments can't easily be moved and new tactics are required to add value.
Predictably Chinese manufacturers are learning to serve their customers better to overcome some of the drawbacks of being far away. TAL Group is now managing the supply chain for its products at JC Penney, one of its biggest T shirt buyers. "We know what's in the warehouse, what's on the boat. We help reduce inventory". This sophisticated partnering approach is in stark contrast to the business environment during the first big expansion last decade. From now on look for happier customers partnering with their Chinese suppliers.
The Leaning-out of the supply chain and manufacturing facilities in North America has never been more urgently needed.
Predictably Chinese manufacturers are learning to serve their customers better to overcome some of the drawbacks of being far away. TAL Group is now managing the supply chain for its products at JC Penney, one of its biggest T shirt buyers. "We know what's in the warehouse, what's on the boat. We help reduce inventory". This sophisticated partnering approach is in stark contrast to the business environment during the first big expansion last decade. From now on look for happier customers partnering with their Chinese suppliers.
The Leaning-out of the supply chain and manufacturing facilities in North America has never been more urgently needed.
Elephants, Awards and Lean Health Care
Here are two of my favourite elephant stories that seem apropos to lean transformation of health care:
1) How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time of course!
2) A king has the blind men of the capital brought to the palace, where an elephant is brought in and they are asked to describe it.
"When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?"
The men cannot agree with one another and come to blows over the question of what it is like and their dispute delights the king.
The cost of our health care is predicted to completely outstrip our ability to fund it within our lifetimes. Hear that boomers? If any sector in our economy needs to embrace lean quickly and effectively right now, it is our Canadian Health care system. We are in trouble. Recently, right across the country, major initiatives to streamline provincial health care data systems have been tainted by scandals. The public faith is eroded daily by every failure, scandal and personal tale of suffering. I will not turn this into a political debate (you're welcome) but the politicians are our leaders and they must not keep passing the buck by simply cutting services and rationing health care. Can the "blind men"/stakeholders in our health care system do anything to change the downward course of the behemoth that is our medical system? The debate is nothing to fear compared to what is at risk. The time is now to get together, understand what they really have on their hands, and then get eating!
Universal health care was a populist initiative that set us apart from the rest of North America. Canadians are rightly proud of their system, and also rightly wary of US style health care. Perhaps to a fault. Universal health care access is right up there with hockey as a Canadian cultural icon. Federal elections have been swayed by the mere suggestion of "two tiered health care". I know we have excellent arguments about why universal health care is better for society, but why can't our public system rival the best privately run operations? Why should the Canadian public accept less value-for-money as a condition for a universal system? I have spoken to a number of health care workers and virtually all are unsatisfied with the system somehow (some to the point of despair). I am told things are dysfunctional and the future is bleak. I understand there is much to discuss and my point here is that it is clearly time for us to act differently and face our elephant.
Advocating the American style solution is "not on" in Canada. That is a political reality. But, (putting aside cultural biases) if the US system is so bad why were so many US citizens opposed to health care reform? In that recent and divisive debate down south, our Canadian system was demonized for having a lower standard of care and huge waiting times that cause unnecessary suffering and death. Hmmm...let me ask you Canadians in your heart-of-hearts; are our wait times for treatment and level of care all that you would like them to be? I know the US debate was ill informed and hysterical/comical when referencing our Canadian system, but I believe the anti-reform forces in the US had a point underpinning their arguments. The opponents did not want any system that reduced standards of available care. Nor did they want care rationed or limited. They wanted high standards of health care. That desire for quality is one of the best attributes of the consumer and it forms a key motivator for a transformation to Lean. It is extremely important to understand that the Canadian public is doubly empowered compared to Americans because we own the system as well as being its customers. We are in the better position to demand both quality and efficiency in our health care.
A great example of Lean in health care is at Virginia Mason Medical. Virginia Mason has transformed itself such that it now offers training and consulting to other hospitals using their own "production system". They went and took the best of lean from manufacturing and applied techniques like kaikaku (rapid change) successfully to health care. Why haven't our institutions gotten that far on the lean journey?
I understand there are efforts to go lean in most health jurisdictions in Canada. A good place to measure the state of Lean Health care in Canada is at the 3rd Annual Lean in Health Care conference being held this month in Vancouver. This conference represents a good bite from the elephant. Private health care support services are among those presenting lean success stories to the conference and that is a very good sign. All these good efforts must be leveraged and we must raise our collective expectations in order to aggressively pursue excellence in health care quality.
In the US there is a Baldridge Award for excellence in health care quality that we in Canada would be wise to shamelessly emulate. The recognition of excellence on a national basis is long overdue. (There is an emerging award CHEQA Canadian Healthcare Excellence in Quality Award that is taking steps in the right direction, but it doesn't have the profile or the criteria to compete with the impact of a Baldridge Award). If we had a prestigious national award of excellence I believe we could better inspire the stakeholders to take on root cause solutions, and to fan the sparks of innovation.
Awards create focus and focus usually creates discussion. Let's get the "blind men" talking seriously. In this case the "blind men" on the health care elephant are: the Public, Government, Doctors, Nurses, Management, Support Industries, and Politicians. Of all the "blind men", the Canadian public have the most potential influence on the pace of improvement. If we could just allow the politicians to fully debate the challenges faced by our system there is a chance we could steer away from the bleakest vision of our health care future. Let's not fry the next intrepid politician that wants to jump start the debate!
Healthcare leadership in governments must be pressed to promote recognition of innovation and quality. Everyone should know who in the country delivers the best care. The public needs to open their ears to the debate, and get used to the fact that change must happen or the great Canadian social accomplishment of the last century will wither away in our lifetimes.
1) How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time of course!
2) A king has the blind men of the capital brought to the palace, where an elephant is brought in and they are asked to describe it.
"When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?"
The men cannot agree with one another and come to blows over the question of what it is like and their dispute delights the king.
The cost of our health care is predicted to completely outstrip our ability to fund it within our lifetimes. Hear that boomers? If any sector in our economy needs to embrace lean quickly and effectively right now, it is our Canadian Health care system. We are in trouble. Recently, right across the country, major initiatives to streamline provincial health care data systems have been tainted by scandals. The public faith is eroded daily by every failure, scandal and personal tale of suffering. I will not turn this into a political debate (you're welcome) but the politicians are our leaders and they must not keep passing the buck by simply cutting services and rationing health care. Can the "blind men"/stakeholders in our health care system do anything to change the downward course of the behemoth that is our medical system? The debate is nothing to fear compared to what is at risk. The time is now to get together, understand what they really have on their hands, and then get eating!
Universal health care was a populist initiative that set us apart from the rest of North America. Canadians are rightly proud of their system, and also rightly wary of US style health care. Perhaps to a fault. Universal health care access is right up there with hockey as a Canadian cultural icon. Federal elections have been swayed by the mere suggestion of "two tiered health care". I know we have excellent arguments about why universal health care is better for society, but why can't our public system rival the best privately run operations? Why should the Canadian public accept less value-for-money as a condition for a universal system? I have spoken to a number of health care workers and virtually all are unsatisfied with the system somehow (some to the point of despair). I am told things are dysfunctional and the future is bleak. I understand there is much to discuss and my point here is that it is clearly time for us to act differently and face our elephant.
Advocating the American style solution is "not on" in Canada. That is a political reality. But, (putting aside cultural biases) if the US system is so bad why were so many US citizens opposed to health care reform? In that recent and divisive debate down south, our Canadian system was demonized for having a lower standard of care and huge waiting times that cause unnecessary suffering and death. Hmmm...let me ask you Canadians in your heart-of-hearts; are our wait times for treatment and level of care all that you would like them to be? I know the US debate was ill informed and hysterical/comical when referencing our Canadian system, but I believe the anti-reform forces in the US had a point underpinning their arguments. The opponents did not want any system that reduced standards of available care. Nor did they want care rationed or limited. They wanted high standards of health care. That desire for quality is one of the best attributes of the consumer and it forms a key motivator for a transformation to Lean. It is extremely important to understand that the Canadian public is doubly empowered compared to Americans because we own the system as well as being its customers. We are in the better position to demand both quality and efficiency in our health care.
A great example of Lean in health care is at Virginia Mason Medical. Virginia Mason has transformed itself such that it now offers training and consulting to other hospitals using their own "production system". They went and took the best of lean from manufacturing and applied techniques like kaikaku (rapid change) successfully to health care. Why haven't our institutions gotten that far on the lean journey?
I understand there are efforts to go lean in most health jurisdictions in Canada. A good place to measure the state of Lean Health care in Canada is at the 3rd Annual Lean in Health Care conference being held this month in Vancouver. This conference represents a good bite from the elephant. Private health care support services are among those presenting lean success stories to the conference and that is a very good sign. All these good efforts must be leveraged and we must raise our collective expectations in order to aggressively pursue excellence in health care quality.
In the US there is a Baldridge Award for excellence in health care quality that we in Canada would be wise to shamelessly emulate. The recognition of excellence on a national basis is long overdue. (There is an emerging award CHEQA Canadian Healthcare Excellence in Quality Award that is taking steps in the right direction, but it doesn't have the profile or the criteria to compete with the impact of a Baldridge Award). If we had a prestigious national award of excellence I believe we could better inspire the stakeholders to take on root cause solutions, and to fan the sparks of innovation.
Awards create focus and focus usually creates discussion. Let's get the "blind men" talking seriously. In this case the "blind men" on the health care elephant are: the Public, Government, Doctors, Nurses, Management, Support Industries, and Politicians. Of all the "blind men", the Canadian public have the most potential influence on the pace of improvement. If we could just allow the politicians to fully debate the challenges faced by our system there is a chance we could steer away from the bleakest vision of our health care future. Let's not fry the next intrepid politician that wants to jump start the debate!
Healthcare leadership in governments must be pressed to promote recognition of innovation and quality. Everyone should know who in the country delivers the best care. The public needs to open their ears to the debate, and get used to the fact that change must happen or the great Canadian social accomplishment of the last century will wither away in our lifetimes.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Back to it! More Motivational Messages
Summer is gone, and we are all pretty much back to the grind full force. I think the time is right for another dose of motivational quotes. Hope you get inspired. Now go out there and Git'er Dun!
"Nothing is foolproof to the sufficiently tenacious fool!"
Stop itching and start pitching!
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein
Move like you are going somewhere.
None of us is as smart as all of us. - Japanese Proverb
Pain is a fact of life...Misery is optional
"Failure is not an option"
1) Carve your own path, 2) you are your own lottery & 3) luck is the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.
"You see things and you say 'Why'. But I dream things that never were and I say 'Why not'."
Before you say you can't, say I'll try
There are no runners up in a battle
The best way to get people to build a ship is not to teach them carpentry, assign them tasks and give them schedule to follow but to make them long for the infinite immensity of the sea
" IF YOU CAN'T DO IT I WILL FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN"
Work is love made visible. And if you can't work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy.
All that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing.
"LET'S DO AMAZING"
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
—Charles R. Swindoll (b.1934), writer, clergyman
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile - Roger Staubach
"The only difference between a stepping stone and a stumbling block is how high you raise your feet"
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” - Wayne Gretzky
Adversity has the ability to elicit talents which, in more prosperous times would have lain dormant. -Horace, 45BC
It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. ~Jonatan Mårtensson
If your actions inspire others to dream, to learn, to do more and to be better, then you're a leader. - Jack Welch.
"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted . . . " Randy Pausch
"Minds are like parachutes, not much good unless they are open"
"It is NOW or NEVER"
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all" - Peter F Drucker
Vision without execution is delusion - Thomas Edison
"If a man doesn't know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him”. (Seneca)
"You get what you give." - Tom Baker
Fail to plan .... plan to fail.
"That's all I can stand, I can't stands no more" - Popeye the Sailorman
"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -Nelson Mandela
If you haven't failed yet today, you're underestimating your potential!
He who hesitates is lost.
It is amazing what becomes possible , when you have seen it done before.
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
It is amazing how much you can get done when you are always doing. - Thomas Jefferson
I never learned anything from someone who agreed with me
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
Do or Do Not. There is no try. - Yoda
You can transform your world in an instant by the way you choose to see it. You can change problems into opportunities, anxiety into enthusiasm, and despair into determination.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. (Albert Einstein)
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca
No friction no shine
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edward Deming
Whatever Captures Your Focus, Controls Your Life.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up - Thomas Alva Edison
Anticipate & Accelerate!
Sometimes it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Think like a man of action...act like a man of thought.
"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
"I discovered plans to be useless and planning invaluable" -- Dwight D Eisenhower
"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving, but does not make any progress." - Alfred Montapert
"To lead a symphony, you must sometimes turn your back to the crowd."
Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Jack Walsh
It's never the important person who is in a rush to get somewhere.
"Everything you want in life is waiting for you outside of your comfort zone" - Antony Fernando
" The function of LEADERSHIP is to produce more leaders not more FOLLOWERS " - Ralph Nader
"If people jumped at opportunities as fast as they do to conclusions they would be better off"
Rejoice in other people's triumphs.
An emergency on your part constitutes an opportunity on mine
What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?
Recommended Reads
"Nothing is foolproof to the sufficiently tenacious fool!"
Stop itching and start pitching!
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein
Move like you are going somewhere.
None of us is as smart as all of us. - Japanese Proverb
Pain is a fact of life...Misery is optional
"Failure is not an option"
1) Carve your own path, 2) you are your own lottery & 3) luck is the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.
"You see things and you say 'Why'. But I dream things that never were and I say 'Why not'."
Before you say you can't, say I'll try
There are no runners up in a battle
The best way to get people to build a ship is not to teach them carpentry, assign them tasks and give them schedule to follow but to make them long for the infinite immensity of the sea
" IF YOU CAN'T DO IT I WILL FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN"
Work is love made visible. And if you can't work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy.
All that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing.
"LET'S DO AMAZING"
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
—Charles R. Swindoll (b.1934), writer, clergyman
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile - Roger Staubach
"The only difference between a stepping stone and a stumbling block is how high you raise your feet"
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” - Wayne Gretzky
Adversity has the ability to elicit talents which, in more prosperous times would have lain dormant. -Horace, 45BC
It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. ~Jonatan Mårtensson
If your actions inspire others to dream, to learn, to do more and to be better, then you're a leader. - Jack Welch.
"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted . . . " Randy Pausch
"Minds are like parachutes, not much good unless they are open"
"It is NOW or NEVER"
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all" - Peter F Drucker
Vision without execution is delusion - Thomas Edison
"If a man doesn't know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him”. (Seneca)
"You get what you give." - Tom Baker
Fail to plan .... plan to fail.
"That's all I can stand, I can't stands no more" - Popeye the Sailorman
"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -Nelson Mandela
If you haven't failed yet today, you're underestimating your potential!
He who hesitates is lost.
It is amazing what becomes possible , when you have seen it done before.
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
It is amazing how much you can get done when you are always doing. - Thomas Jefferson
I never learned anything from someone who agreed with me
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
Do or Do Not. There is no try. - Yoda
You can transform your world in an instant by the way you choose to see it. You can change problems into opportunities, anxiety into enthusiasm, and despair into determination.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. (Albert Einstein)
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca
No friction no shine
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edward Deming
Whatever Captures Your Focus, Controls Your Life.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up - Thomas Alva Edison
Anticipate & Accelerate!
Sometimes it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Think like a man of action...act like a man of thought.
"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
"I discovered plans to be useless and planning invaluable" -- Dwight D Eisenhower
"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving, but does not make any progress." - Alfred Montapert
"To lead a symphony, you must sometimes turn your back to the crowd."
Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Jack Walsh
It's never the important person who is in a rush to get somewhere.
"Everything you want in life is waiting for you outside of your comfort zone" - Antony Fernando
" The function of LEADERSHIP is to produce more leaders not more FOLLOWERS " - Ralph Nader
"If people jumped at opportunities as fast as they do to conclusions they would be better off"
Rejoice in other people's triumphs.
An emergency on your part constitutes an opportunity on mine
What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?
Recommended Reads
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Make Green Initiatives Lean Initiatives: Another tale of waste.
Today's Financial Post had an interesting article about a success story of using "Prepaid corporate incentives". There is a large photo of smiling man who's business is going greener by giving visa prepaid gift cards as incentives to customers.
K Dental was looking to reduce its carbon footprint , says Tom Pizio manager for sales and business development at the Toronto-based dental equipment supplier. "We realized clients were buying just a few items at a time. In some cases we were sending 10 to 15 shipments a month to one customer."
"Now about 50% of our customers have reduced the number of shipments to support our Eco project" On average, he says, K Dental sends out 100 gift cards per month.
Well at first glance it may seem to be a nice green initiative, but I will tell you why my spidey senses started tingling on this one. In the world of Lean, every business is better off giving the customer what they want, when they want it. That is the meaning of "Customer Pull" or Just-in-time. The lean business must produce smaller batches more frequently ( gaining substantial profits in doing so!). On the other hand, giving incentives and discounts to push larger and larger batches on customers is wasteful, in fact it is the very definition of a "Push"system. The K Dental approach is adding cost by managing waste instead of reducing cost by eliminating waste. In this case the customer is effectively paid to take more product at a time to "gain" the carbon footprint of the reduced deliveries. If this company took a Lean approach to reducing their carbon footprint this initiative would be the absolute last thing they would do.
Use Lean to reduce carbon
If a company put lean techniques to work on a carbon footprint reduction initiative, then they would be sure that the most cost effective measures were taken. There would be data collected so that the cost and impact of carbon reduction initiatives could be compared, and the lowest cost/highest impact projects would be targeted for priority execution. If analysis (a simple Pareto chart) is done, they would undoubtedly find that it is more rewarding in carbon reduction (and dollars) to change themselves, not to pay customers to change for them instead.
Using Lean methodology to meet the customer pull is the fundamental way to extract maximum value out of the supply chain. Simply, by taking a lean approach to their business (including their suppliers) the carbon foot print would be reduced because of massively reduced waste in their own functions. By involving suppliers, where they naturally have leverage, carbon reduction is easier. By the time they have thoroughly cleaned up (and leaned up) their own act, they could approach customers about win-win partnering on efficient carbon reduction. Think about it: if the customer truly wanted large bulk deliveries, you would not have to pay them to take it.
In the end a lean supply chain keeps more carbon in the ground, and out of the air, because the absolute minimum inventory of products is manufactured and transported. Nothing is made and trucked around, with no buyer, waiting to be discounted. That is both Green and Lean.
K Dental was looking to reduce its carbon footprint , says Tom Pizio manager for sales and business development at the Toronto-based dental equipment supplier. "We realized clients were buying just a few items at a time. In some cases we were sending 10 to 15 shipments a month to one customer."
"Now about 50% of our customers have reduced the number of shipments to support our Eco project" On average, he says, K Dental sends out 100 gift cards per month.
Well at first glance it may seem to be a nice green initiative, but I will tell you why my spidey senses started tingling on this one. In the world of Lean, every business is better off giving the customer what they want, when they want it. That is the meaning of "Customer Pull" or Just-in-time. The lean business must produce smaller batches more frequently ( gaining substantial profits in doing so!). On the other hand, giving incentives and discounts to push larger and larger batches on customers is wasteful, in fact it is the very definition of a "Push"system. The K Dental approach is adding cost by managing waste instead of reducing cost by eliminating waste. In this case the customer is effectively paid to take more product at a time to "gain" the carbon footprint of the reduced deliveries. If this company took a Lean approach to reducing their carbon footprint this initiative would be the absolute last thing they would do.
Use Lean to reduce carbon
If a company put lean techniques to work on a carbon footprint reduction initiative, then they would be sure that the most cost effective measures were taken. There would be data collected so that the cost and impact of carbon reduction initiatives could be compared, and the lowest cost/highest impact projects would be targeted for priority execution. If analysis (a simple Pareto chart) is done, they would undoubtedly find that it is more rewarding in carbon reduction (and dollars) to change themselves, not to pay customers to change for them instead.
Using Lean methodology to meet the customer pull is the fundamental way to extract maximum value out of the supply chain. Simply, by taking a lean approach to their business (including their suppliers) the carbon foot print would be reduced because of massively reduced waste in their own functions. By involving suppliers, where they naturally have leverage, carbon reduction is easier. By the time they have thoroughly cleaned up (and leaned up) their own act, they could approach customers about win-win partnering on efficient carbon reduction. Think about it: if the customer truly wanted large bulk deliveries, you would not have to pay them to take it.
In the end a lean supply chain keeps more carbon in the ground, and out of the air, because the absolute minimum inventory of products is manufactured and transported. Nothing is made and trucked around, with no buyer, waiting to be discounted. That is both Green and Lean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)