A few years ago, the Clinton Global Initiative announced a national program aimed at helping schools, hospitals and other nonprofits stretch their dollars further.
I took special note of this because the program was in partnership with Toyota and featured the Toyota Production System (TPS).
The initiative, TPS was successfully applied at a New Orleans recovery organization, a community food pantry in New York City, and a hospital in Pittsburgh.
Having had success with TPS at the core of our company I couldn’t agree more with the experts who believe it can be applied to other organizations.
TPS is designed to reduce cost by eliminating wastes with the goal to have the highest quality product at the lowest cost possible with the shortest lead-time.
Becker’s Hospital Review outlines five key principles that hospitals - or any organization - can learn from the auto industry.
Lowering costs, increasing employee value, and a dedication to continuous improvement should be a priority for any successful leader. In turn, it is what will help create successful companies.
What steps can your company make to begin applying Toyota Production System (TPS)?
A few weeks ago, I was headed on vacation with my family and, as we stood in the airport security line, I noticed something interesting. TSA does not use lean management practices.
Curious, I watched to see how long it took for one person to go through the line. I also counted how many times the person scanning the bags was interrupted...by his own peers.
In the five minutes it took for one person to go through security, the TSA reps were all talking to one another, and the guy scanning our bags was interrupted by five other TSA employees.
Where are the standards for one of our country's most important positions?
It's understandable standards need to vary from airport-to-airport, in order to not provide an easy way for terrorists to strike, but what I witnessed was inefficiency at its best. (more…)