Posted in Health care, process improvement, Quality, tagged Health care, process improvement, Quality on February 23, 2015| 1 Comment »
Check out these number from the Wall Street Journal (How to Make Surgery Safer, Feb 16).
A little disconcerting, eh? Now there are obviously a lot of surgeries taking place every day in the US, so on a percentage basis having just 20 procedure in which the surgeon operates on the wrong site is very low. Still, that is not very helpful t the person who has a stitches on the wrong side of their body.
So what can be done to make surgery safer and more reliable? (more…)
Posted in Manufacturing, process improvement, Product Development, tagged Manufacturing, process improvement on December 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »
What can a major company learn from the sports world? I am not thinking here about inspirational speeches from a coach or anything like that. Rather, can people with a background in sports competition actually offer ways of improving business processes?
It turns out the answer to that question is yes as the Financial Times reports in discussing McClaren Applied Technologies relationship with GlaxoSmithKline (McLaren speeds up GSK with racetrack expertise, Dec 10). That’s McClaren as in Formula 1 racing and they have turned their expertise in organizing pit crews and monitoring racing cars into a side consulting business. In the case of GSK, they have produced some interesting results.
Perhaps the clearest dividend of the partnership so far has come not in drug development but in GSK’s consumer healthcare business. McLaren was asked to scrutinise a toothpaste manufacturing facility in Maidenhead and work out how to boost efficiency.
“We noticed that they were making lots of small batches of different products with a lot of down time in between,” says Mr McGrath. “They said: ‘If you can change four tyres on a racing car in two seconds why does it take us two hours to do a changeover?’”
Within a year, lost time had been cut by 60 per cent, using principles similar to those that govern the pit-stops for Mr Button’s racing car. “It’s about everyone knowing their job and doing it well,” says Mr McGrath. “Afterwards, we analyse every detail — what went well, what didn’t and how we can improve.”
Posted in Health care, process improvement, tagged Health care, process improvement on October 1, 2014| 1 Comment »
Much of operations is about standardization. There is much to be gained from building processes that are appropriately tailored to the task at hand and handling that task in the same “best” way every time. And then there is health care, where every patient is unique in some way and doing less is seen as an anathema. There is a very real possibility that not opting not to do some test or some procedure could lead to adverse outcomes for patients. However, not following best practices can lead to excessive cost.
The Wall Street Journal provides a nice example from a study at a small hospital system Christiana Care that made a conscious effort to get doctors to stick established best-practice guidelines (Hospitals Cut Costs by Getting Doctors to Stick to Guidelines, Sep 22). The procedure in question is cardiac telemetry, which is a monitoring technique, and how it should be used for patients that are not in an intensive care ward.
In cardiac telemetry, electrodes are used to monitor the heart for abnormal rhythms. To try to cut inappropriate use of the monitoring at Christiana Care, which operates two hospitals, a group of physicians redesigned the electronic system that doctors use to order tests and other care.
First, they removed the option to order telemetry for conditions not included in the [American Heart Association] guidelines. Doctors could get around this and order the monitoring, but they had to take an extra step to do so, according to Robert Dressler, who helped lead the study. “We didn’t want to get in the way of the bedside clinician who had a demonstrable concern” and wanted to use telemetry despite contradicting guidelines, he said.
Posted in Manufacturing, process improvement, tagged Manufacturing, process improvement on April 30, 2014| 2 Comments »
I am one of those American who is adamantly uninterested in soccer. However, I have to admit that the process of making soccer balls might be interesting. More specifically it can be interesting when a bunch of researchers mess with how it is done.
It turns out that Pakistan is a big player in soccer ball production, as this graph from the Wall Street Journal shows (How Automation Fell Flat in the World’s Soccer-Ball Capital, Apr 28).
As the figure demonstrates, Chinese have been putting pressure on the Pakistanis in part by machine sewing balls while most Pakistani balls are hand stitched (see here for more on that). You would think that would make Pakistani manufacturers anxious for any process innovation that would let them reduce cost and compete with the Chinese.
In that context, enter a group of economists who have better way to cut the faux leather that makes up the ball. Here is their explanation of the innovation (from the Center for Development Economics and Policy at Columbia).
Posted in global operations, Innovation, Manufacturing, Offshoring, Operations Strategy, process improvement, Product Development on September 26, 2013| 5 Comments »
So far, our blogs on offshoring have considered its domestic impact in terms of jobs and competitiveness. Today, I report on the first data I have seen to shed light on the link between production offshoring and domestic innovation. The question is: Do firms that offshore production innovate more or less than firms that do not offshore? This question has led to national debate on competitiveness. Here is some key data and a data-driven answer:… (more…)
Posted in Fast Food, process improvement, Quality, Restaurants, Services, tagged Fast Food, process improvement, Quality, Restaurants, Services on April 15, 2013| 3 Comments »
What counts as good service at a fast food restaurant? Speed obviously matters but what about staff interactions? No expects a quick service restaurant to have a Zagat’s rating (although some Chicago hot dog stands are graded) but can fast food service slip so much that customers notice?
Apparently the answer is yes, and furthermore McDonald’s hasn’t been doing so well in delivering service (McDonald’s Tackles Repair of ‘Broken’ Service, Apr 10).
But achieving speed and friendliness of service across the chain has been a particularly elusive goal, at least in part because about 90% of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. are owned by independent operators.
In QSR Magazine’s annual Drive-Thru Study, the only comprehensive industry comparison of customer service at fast-food chains, other restaurants have consistently outperformed McDonald’s in those areas. In last year’s study, the average service time at the McDonald’s drive-through studied was 188.83 seconds, compared with 129.75 for industry leader Wendy’s Co. Chick-fil-A had the top friendliness ratings. Out of the seven major chains in the study, McDonald’s was second to last in the “very friendly” ranking, just above Burger King.
So what are the root causes of the problem and what can they do about it? (more…)
Posted in process improvement, Restaurants, Services, Waiting, tagged process improvement, Restaurants, Services, Waiting Time on August 30, 2012| 7 Comments »
How does a quick service chain increase sales when it’s tough to raise price or open new outlets? Process improvements! Or at least that is what the Wall Street Journal says (Restaurant Chains Feel the Need for Speed, Aug 29). The argument is that long lines scare off customers — especially at peak times — so faster fast food means more sales.
Here’s what they say about Chipotle:
For Chipotle, it’s a top priority. “We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long line, and there’s people turning away at the end,” said Co-Chief Executive Monty Moran.
Chipotle processed an average of six more transactions during the lunch hour last quarter, beating its 2007 record. The Colorado-based burrito chain is training its staff to be more prepared for the lunch rush, with extra trays of ingredients ready on the sideline, and to be attentive to customers so they don’t have to repeat themselves.
At each of its most efficient restaurants, Chipotle averages more than 350 transactions during the lunch hour—about one every 11 seconds.
A customer every 11 seconds is pretty impressive and certainly faster than I would have expected. Note that Chipotle’s approach makes sense since their service is very much human paced as orders are filled by scooping fillings and rolling burritos. The article reports that they have tried having a second register but found it generally made no difference. That they even tried that makes me wonder if whoever proposed that has ever eaten at a Chipotle since payment is clearly not the bottleneck.
Posted in Health care, process improvement, tagged Health care, process improvement on August 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »
A recent New Yorker article by Atul Gawande has gotten a lot of attention (Big Med, Aug 13). The article is built around an intriguing observation: The Cheesecake Factory can churn out a high variety of dishes at consistently decent quality at reasonable prices across more than a hundred locations. The question then is whether healthcare providers can learn anything from the Cheesecake Factory?
It is an thought-provoking question. The Cheesecake Factory is one of many “service factories” in a variety of industries that provide decent service at very reasonable prices. Many (e.g., Jiffy Lube) do this by winnowing down the range of services they offer but the Cheesecake Factory has a huge menu and can handle some special requests. So Gawande takes a hard look at the Cheesecake Factory to see just how they do it and finds that the kitchen manager plays a special role:
I watched the kitchen manager for a while. At every Cheesecake Factory restaurant, a kitchen manager is stationed at the counter where the food comes off the line, and he rates the food on a scale of one to ten. A nine is near-perfect. An eight requires one or two corrections before going out to a guest. A seven needs three. A six is unacceptable and has to be redone. This inspection process seemed a tricky task. No one likes to be second-guessed. The kitchen manager prodded gently, being careful to praise as often as he corrected. (“Beautiful. Beautiful!” “The pattern of this pesto glaze is just right.”) But he didn’t hesitate to correct. …
The managers had all risen through the ranks. This earned them a certain amount of respect. They in turn seemed respectful of the cooks’ skills and experience. Still, the oversight is tight, and this seemed crucial to the success of the enterprise.
The managers monitored the pace, too—scanning the screens for a station stacking up red flags, indicating orders past the target time, and deciding whether to give the cooks at the station a nudge or an extra pair of hands. They watched for waste—wasted food, wasted time, wasted effort. The formula was Business 101: Use the right amount of goods and labor to deliver what customers want and no more. Anything more is waste, and waste is lost profit.
Posted in Human resources, process improvement, Procurement on July 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The term private equity (PE) firm not only sounds sexier than “buyout firm,” but it also better reflects the changing nature of such firm’s activities. Before the financial crisis hit in 2009, PE firms were not unlike residential home flippers: find an undervalued house, make “the deal” (often hugely leveraged), improve it, and sell it at a profit … quickly. The difference, however, was that the PE deal makers mainly used someone else money. After the financial crisis, loans and leverage doesn’t come that easily anymore and the task of PE is moving towards making “true” improvements and often holding on longer.
In the good old days, the majority of PE action involved financial restructuring and beautification of the balance sheet and make a profit, sometimes in a few months, without getting deeply involved in the business. Now, the focus is on operational restructuring and improvements. Two typical activities involve changing the people (HR reorgs) and improving the operations. (Changing product and brands often takes too long for a PE firm’s time scale.)
Last week, Kevin Roose reported in the New York Times on how PE firms like Blackstone “are using their size and scope to pressure suppliers, set their own prices and exert their influence in a range of industries, including health care, construction and consumer goods:“
Last year, Blackstone was part of a group of companies that collectively bought 16 million reams of copy paper, 35 million FedEx shipments and 900,000 days’ worth of rental cars from National and Avis.
“We have incredible leverage,” said James A. Quella, Blackstone’s North American head of portfolio operations. “The more volume we have, the lower our prices go.”
The private equity titans have huge economic influence and sway, largely because of the size of their portfolios. Blackstone owns all or part of 74 companies that employ 700,000 people and generate $117 billion in annual revenue. Taken collectively, Blackstone’s businesses would rank as the 13th largest company by revenue.
This seems like a welcome byproduct of the change of the times: the smaller individual companies (“entities”) get access to suppliers and services on the same terms of a 10 or 100-fold larger company. The changing focus to providing “true value” (by which I mean improving true work, which equals operations) also increases the value of operations and supply chain management knowledge. And that is good news for operations professors and for MBA students!
Posted in global operations, Green ops, Lean Ops, Manufacturing, Operations Strategy, process improvement, Product Development, product variety, Quality, Services, Supply Chain, Sustainability on June 5, 2012| 2 Comments »
For once we are not reporting on external content but on our own: I am excited to announce a totally new approach to executive learning and education on operations. Co-author and co-blogger Gad Allon and I have been working with our friends at McKinsey & Company to design the Executive Operations Experience: From Strategy to Execution.
A new collaboration between the Kellogg School of Management and McKinsey & Company.
Operations executives who are eager to stay current, hone their skills and broaden their networks, take note! In an exciting cooperative venture, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, and McKinsey & Company will be offering a first-of-its-kind, experiential learning program starting in the fall of this year. Four, three-day sessions taking place at McKinsey’s model factories throughout Europe will provide a curriculum that covers all operational functions, jointly taught by both academics and consultants. Learn if the new 2013 program might be right for you here.
The Operations Room 