Lean seminar

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Ideal and West Midlands SHA worked in partnership to deliver a Business Process Re-engineering and Lean Techniques seminar on 26 January at Osprey House in Redditch.

The seminar demonstrated how clinical and non clinical managers within the NHS can use Lean Six Sigma techniques to eliminate waste and improve efficiency whilst simultaneously improving patient care.

David Broadbent, Business Process Re-engineering and Change Management Specialist, delivered an inspiring presentation on Resistance to Process Change. David looked at examples of organisations from various industries which have successfully changed their business processes in order to survive the additional challenges presented by the recession. He suggested that techniques which have proved successful in the private sector will be of enormous benefit to the NHS during the post recession period where business change will play a fundamental part in improving efficiency and effectiveness.

David looked at different types of resistance to change and explained how they could be overcome. He explained the importance of effectively managing the business process re-engineering project for long term success.

Dominic Harborne, Pricniple Consultant on Lean Six Sigma with Process Flow Consulting, provided an enlighteneing and thought provoking overview of Lean Six Sigma and demonstrated the potential benefits of deploying Lean Techniques to improve process efficiency. By adopting the key Lean principles of Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control, Dominic explained the Lean technique of recognising and eliminating waste.

Dominic also discussed the challenges associated with achieving conflicting organisational targets - quality of service, cost and delilvery time. He demonstrated that by adopting Lean techniques, organisations could potentially improve on all three areas simultaneously, and would at least show an improvement on two targets without adversely affecting the third.

Dominic reinforced the concept of Lean thinking through an interactive case study based around urgent care.

David Broadbent delivered a second presentation on Business Process Re-engineering, Becoming Greener by Accident. He provided an example of a process change which ceased the automatic sending out of large publications in response to job applications. By creating a website with a downloadable version of the information, costs were reduced dramatically in publication production, postage and manpower.

Mark Lovatt, Technical Director at Ideal, summarised the day and hosted a lively Q and A session. Mark was able to discuss how change techniques can be utilised within the NHS, drawing on his 'hands on' experience of working directly with various Trusts within the NHS on major change projects.

Ideal works in partnership with key industry specialists to deliver a full portfolio of support services to NHS organisations. Ricahrd Ayres, Regional Manager, Ideal explains, "The NHS is facing a challenging post recession period with conflicting targets associated with cost cutting and quality of patient care. We work with many Trusts throughout the country to help address these issues and develop tailored solutions with effective and efficient processes which are adopted and managed for long term benefits."

The seminar proved to be highly popular and all 60 places were swiftly filled with many more on a waiting list. Due to the success of the event, Ideal is planning to run further seminars throughout 2010 in various locations.

If you would like to discuss your Business Process Re-engineering and Lean Techniques requirements, please contact Richard Ayres on 01483 453508 or email richard.ayres@idealts.co.uk

Head office: 01483 453508 Leeds: 0113 390 6022 London: 020 7953 7258

e: info@idealts.co.uk