The Leading Edge Group in association with University College Cork, Ireland, are offering a blended Lean SCM Black Belt program for Irish based professionals. The closing date for the next UCC Lean SCM Black Belt program (Postgraduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management) is 30th July 2010.
“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” Jack Welsh
Many people are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s best selling book ‘The Tipping Point’ first published in the year 2000. Drawing on epidemic theory, Gladwell provided insights into how social trends and programs tipped from a small beginning to widespread adoption. In doing so he popularised the term tipping point, that ‘magical moment when ideas, trends and social behaviours cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire’.
The Leading Edge Group are now accepting applications for the current cohort of the Lean Healthcare Black Belt program. This six-month distance learning program aims to provide participants with a practical application of Lean tools and techniques within the healthcare sector, as well as developing the appropriate process improvement, leadership, and project management skills to drive the changes that are necessary for a successful Lean transformation.
Many of the frontline staff working in the Irish health service feel disenfranchised and ignored by key decision-makers and can make a far greater contribution to service delivery and reform. That’s according to Joe Aherne, co-editor of an international healthcare efficiency book recently published and CEO of Leading Edge Group who work with healthcare providers in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland.
The European book launch for “Applying Lean in Healthcare: A Collection of International Case Studies” was held on Thursday June 3rd at the Royal College of Physicians, Dublin, Ireland. The guest speaker was Dr. James Reilly Irish opposition spokesperson for Health and Children.
The United States Hospital is the region’s leading specialty care and referral center. It is a family-focused hospital that offers patients the most advanced medical treatment and the finest amenities available.
Since 1992, there has been a continual move (unit by unit) from one campus location to another because of lack of space. Space is at a critical premium when running all the functions within a hospital facility, and even more so when a large hospital is moving from one campus to another. The 5S tool provided a solution to space issues without downsizing staff or incurring large-scale capital building costs.
The above article was taken from the Lean Healthcare publication - "Applying Lean in Healthcare - A Collection of International Case Studies"
The Bon Secours graduates of our Lean Healthcare Green Belt program were recently presented with their certificates by Joe Aherne, CEO, of the Leading Edge Group at a ceremony in Cork, Ireland. The successful candidates were Paul Foley, Marie Brennan, Siobhan Walsh, Claire Buckley, Adrienne Tobin, Mary Forde, Andrew Kenny, Donal Sheahan and Eamon Counihan. Siobhan Walsh received a gold star award with a 90% assessment score and was presented with a free copy of the book “Applying Lean in Healthcare; A Collection of International Case Studies”. Eamon Counihan, Quality Improvement coordinator, Best Practice Department at the Bon Secours Hospital Cork, hosted the event.
Author: Siobhan Walsh, MISCP, Physiotherapy Manager, Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, Ireland
The Physiotherapy Department in the Bon Secours Hospital Cork is staffed by a team of 17 Chartered Physiotherapists. Services are available to both inpatients and outpatients. Inpatients must be referred for physiotherapy by their attending Consultant. Averages of 375 inpatient referrals for physiotherapy are received each calendar month. This results in approximately 1600 inpatient physiotherapy consults per month.
The Leading Edge Group welcomes Nick Tulloch, International Business Development Manager, to the team. Nick has over 15 years of Customer Care and Major Account Management experience. Nick has Diplomas in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management and has worked in a vast array of industries relating to Consultancy & Training services.
At first glance, Lean is a set of tools which can be used to streamline business processes – a valuable commodity in these straitened times, when businesses in all sectors are looking at how to improve efficiencies. But this set of tools will only work in organisations or companies in which a culture of empowerment and continuous improvement exists – otherwise any Lean project, however well intentioned, will usually be doomed to failure. “Lean does not come solely from the top down,” said Canadian “Lean Guru” Professor Tim Hill, who is currently working on major Lean projects in Ireland with The Leading Edge Group. “If it is something that is dictated from the senior management, it will be viewed as a sort of “flavour of the month”, and people will generally revert back to what they were doing before it was introduced. But if Lean involves those who are closest to production, it has a better chance of succeeding.”
Lean is a systematic approach for identifying and eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) through continuous improvement. Leading Edge’s “Lean Lab” is the application of Lean principles in the clinical laboratory, specifically adapted and tailored for use in this environment through dozens of improvement events previously held throughout the world. Most importantly, Lean Lab is about understanding what adds value to patients, physicians, and other customers, and delivering that value as seamlessly and efficiently as possible.
This month the Leading Edge Group is celebrating 15 years in business, established in April 1995 to provide niche management consulting solutions to organizations on a global level. The Group is located in Toronto, Canada, and Cork, Ireland and works throughout Europe and North America where they have successfully conducted over 800 process improvement engagements in the past decade. They currently have more than 100 global clients engaged in Lean initiatives.
As healthcare costs increase at a faster rate than other products or services, healthcare providers, in particular hospitals, are under continuous pressure to dramatically improve service, reduce costs, improve patient safety and reduce waiting times. However, hospitals are not making the necessary improvements in cost and quality across their internal and external supply chains.
The cost of inventory is continuing to rise across industries tying up valuable cash as well as impacting on the cost base of the organization. This is especially true for healthcare where inventory costs are already high and specialty items can be extremely costly to acquire and manage with expiration dates a particular concern.
Originating in Japanese car manufacturing with Toyota, Lean Thinking is now being applied more widely with considerable success. It is an organizational strategy for optimizing resources and delivering efficiencies through identifying and eliminating wasteful steps in core processes. In healthcare, these are typically around both patient pathways and administrative processes.
Lean principles are used to some extent in most healthcare systems in Canada and are continuing to gain traction as more and more internal ambassadors see the efficiencies to be achieved while also being assured that these are not won through brutal cost-cutting that leaves patients vulnerable.
The Leading Edge Group has officially become a CPA Ireland approved trainin partner. The CPA Approved Training Partner programme provides a quality framework for accounting trainees and certified accountants
The Leading Edge Group has formed a business collaboration with S A Partners, the UK’s longest-established consultancy in ‘Lean’, a system for eliminating waste and driving efficiency to achieve greater value.
The Leading Edge Group recently delivered a 2-day Lean Yellow Healthcare Belt workshop to a number of Irish healthcare staff.
Lean facilitators leading the event were Steve Hardgrave, Jane Bishop of Waterford General Hospital and Carole Broadbank of Clonmel Hospital. Participants learned the basic principles of Lean and the specific benefits of applying Lean to the Irish healthcare sector. A number of case studies, interactive demonstrations and videos were introduced to aid the learning application and evaluation results were extremely positive.
‘Lowering healthcare costs without lowering quality standards’, a submission from the Cork-based Leading Edge Group to Mary Harney TD, Minister for Health & Children, on the healthcare component of Budget 2010 to be announced by Brian Lenihan TD, Minister for Finance, in Dáil Éireann on December 9
The Leading Edge Group are delighted to welcome Steve Hardgrave to our team. Steve has over 15 years experience in implementing Lean as both a consultant and as a line manager. He has led Lean and business process improvement projects at more than 25 leading organisations, including healthcare providers, manufacturing operations, services companies, and government agencies.
The Leading Edge Group in conjunction with the Productivity Press will publish in March 2010 entitled: Applying Lean in Healthcare – A Collection of International Case Studies. The book is now available to pre-order from Amazon.com and from Productivity Press ISBN Number 978-1-4398-2739-0.
The Leading Edge Group will host a number of two-day Lean Healthcare Yellow Belt workshops in Ireland. Participants will learn how to apply Lean concepts and tools to healthcare enterprises.
One of the largest and most prestigious health care gatherings in North America, HealthAchieve2009 aims to inspire ideas and innovation with over 50 informative and engaging educational sessions along with its award-winning exhibit floor, where more than 350 exhibitors showcase the latest health care products, services and technologies.
The Leading Edge Group and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) recently announced a new and innovative Lean Healthcare education partnership that is aimed at preparing healthcare professionals and organizations to increase efficiencies and improve organizational performance. This agreement includes the delivery of a series of Lean educational programs to frontline staff and a number of webcasts to an audience of healthcare leaders as part of OHA's Governance Centre of Excellence (GCE).
Leading Edge Group Ireland and Leading Edge Group Canada where in attendance at the Enterprise Ireland Canada forum held on the 22nd October 2009.
The CPA held their 2-day Members in Industry Conference on the 9th and 10th October in Dublin, Ireland. Over 80 accountants attended the event. The presentations reflected the current state of the global economy and included topics on cash management; company valuations; performance management and business opportunities in the context of the current market.
Joe Aherne, CEO of the Leading Edge Group, presented on “Going Lean – What is Lean Thinking and how can it benefit you”.
The Leading Edge Group recently delivered a 2-day Lean Yellow Belt training program to supply chain staff at a Pfizer API facility.
Our senior Lean trainer, Joe O’Callaghan, presented on the basic principles of Lean and the specific benefits of applying Lean to the pharmaceutical sector. A number of case studies and videos were introduced to aid the learning application and evaluation results were extremely positive.
The Leading Edge Group was invited to present at the Consultancy Forum for Pharmaceutical Engineers (CFPE) workshop on 1st October 2009.
Leading Edge delivered a series of presentations on Lean Culture & Strategy to the CFPE general membership committee meeting at a Pfizer facility in Cork, Ireland. CFPE is a forum for individuals and companies working in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the September 2009 event was hosted by Nick Ustianowski, Lean Project Leader, Pfizer Drug Product Plant.
The Leading Edge Group is proud to announce the launch of a new Learning Management System (LMS) portal designed to support our expanding client base and ever-increasing education and training portfolio.
The Leading Edge Group in conjunction with the Productivity Press are launching a new publication in October2009 entitled: Applying Lean in Healthcare – A Collection of International Case Studies.
The focus of Lean Thinking in healthcare is on improving flow among core value activities in organizations, and on improving the patient’s journey. This publication outlines, through a series of practical case studies, how these flows can be improved dramatically. Most of these case studies originate from projects undertaken by students of The Leading Edge Group Lean Healthcare Green and Black Belt programs. The Productivity Press have already published leading books in the area of Lean and Lean Healthcare including “Lean Hospitals: Improving quality, patient safety, and employee satisfaction” which won a Shingo prize in 2009.
The Leading Edge Group recently launched a “new” distance learning 6-month Lean Healthcare Black Belt program to be managed from our Toronto offices. The program covers advanced Lean tools and practices including Voice of the Customer (VOC), Kano Analysis, managing demand and variation and mapping extended and multiple values streams.
The Leading Edge Group has been shortlisted in the Aramark healthcare technology/products innovation category for their suite of Lean Healthcare education programs. This award recognises and rewards a significant cutting-edge advance in innovative breakthroughs in healthcare services, product or technology.
The first Court of Experts of 2009 will take place on 28th May 2009.
Event Details:
Actively Managing Change in the Life Science and Medical Device Sectors
This will be an afternoon event and will commence at 12.30am with a plant tour and will be of specific interest to all those working the Life Science and Medical Device sectors.
Date: Thursday, 28th May2009
Where: Olympus Diagnostica, O’Callaghan’s Mill, County Clare
Time: 12.30pm
A Lean Healthcare Summit entitled “The Art of Reducing Inefficiencies in our Healthcare Systems” recently took place in Cork, Ireland. Organized by the Leading Edge Group, the event explored how inefficiencies and non-value-add activities in our healthcare systems could be eliminated in order to ensure the highest levels of patient satisfaction and care delivery.
The Leading Edge Group and the Community College of Vermont (CCV) have recently signed an articulation agreement for our Lean Healthcare Green Belt Program. The purpose of this articulation agreement is to award four CCV credits and provide an official CCV transcript to individuals not otherwise affiliated with CCV who complete the Lean Healthcare Green Belt Program.
The agreement was signed by David Buchdahl, Dean of Academic Affairs at the Community College of Vermont, and Joe Aherne, CEO of the Leading Edge Group. Joe confirmed that this program is designed to promote professional certification in Lean Healthcare in the state of Vermont linking the Green Belt certification course with a credit-bearing course at CCV.
