Lean Continuous Improvement Builds Excellence and Engagement

2015 ◽  
pp. 147-173
Author(s):  
Tom Huckabee
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Organizational Success ◽  
Process Performance ◽  
Current Management ◽  
Profit Margins ◽  
Organizational Benefits ◽  
Management Literature

The current management literature is replete with advocates for employee engagement. Not many would argue that engendering ownership and responsibility along with the reported organizational benefits are worth aspiring to achieve. However, the actual results of workplace surveys report disengagement appears to be more the norm in spite of management best efforts. As organizational success and growth come, things start falling apart, resulting in missed deliveries, waste, worker frustration, dissatisfied customers, and lower profit margins. Lean best practices, heralded by many marketplace leaders, demonstrate results-oriented and proven ways of gaining employee engagement from extraordinary process performance to everyone's satisfaction (customers, owners, employees, community). This chapter is a cataloguing of the employee engagement characteristics matched to prevalent Lean processing principles. Lean is promoted in this work as providing a mature and proven system for advancing engagement even while improving processes.

Similar but Different: A Top-Down Benchmarking Approach to Investigate Nuclear Decommissioning Projects

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diletta Colette Invernizzi ◽  
Giorgio Locatelli ◽  
Naomi J. Brookes ◽  
Martin Grey
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Rocky Flats ◽  
Nuclear Decommissioning ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Nuclear Site ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Management Literature

Project management literature has, until now, mainly focused on new build and only in the last decades the issues of decommissioning (mega) projects has arisen. To respond to this changing environment, project management will need to understand the challenges of decommissioning projects. Decommissioning projects within Oil & Gas, Chemical and Nuclear sectors are characterized by high costs, long schedules and uncertainty-based risks. The budget for Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs) are subject to well publicized increases and, due to their relatively recent emergence, complexity and variety, key stakeholders lack a full understanding of the key factors influencing these increases. Benchmarking involves “comparing actual or planned practices [...] to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement” [1] and offers significant potential to improve the performance of project selection, planning and delivery. However, even if benchmarking is the envisaged methodology to investigate the NDPs characteristics that impact on the NDPs performance, until now, it has only been partially used and there is a huge gap in the literature concerning benchmarking NDPs. This paper adapts a top-down benchmarking approach to highlight the NDPs characteristics that mostly impact on the NDPs performance. This is exemplified by a systematic quantitative and qualitative cross-comparison of two major “similar-but-different” NDPs: Rocky Flats (US) and Sellafield (UK). Main results concern the understanding of the alternatives of the owner and/or the contractors in relation to (1) the physical characteristics and the end state of the nuclear site, (2) the governance, funding & contracting schemes, and (3) the stakeholders’ engagement.

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Outpatient Laboratories: Effects on Wait Times, Employee Engagement, and Efficiency

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-397
Author(s):  
Joseph Featherall ◽  
Alexander Chaitoff ◽  
Anthony Simonetti ◽  
James Bena ◽  
Daniel Kubiak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Health Care Quality ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Wait Times ◽  
Full Time

Transforming health care remains a challenge as many continuous improvement (CI) initiatives fail or are not sustained. Although the literature suggests the importance of culture, few studies provide evidence of cultural change creating sustained CI. This improvement initiative focused on creating cultural change through goal alignment, visual management, and empowering frontline employees. Data included 113 133 encounters. Cochran-Armitage tests and X-bar charting compared wait times during the CI initiative. Odds of waiting <15 minutes increased in both phase 2 (odds ratio = 3.57, 95% confidence interval = [3.43-3.71]) and phase 3 (odds ratio = 5.39, 95% confidence interval = [5.07, 5.74]). At 3 years follow-up, 95% of wait times were <15 minutes. Productivity increased from 519 to 644 patients/full-time equivalent/month; 33/42 Press Ganey employee engagement components significantly improved. This study demonstrates the efficacy of a culture of CI approach to sustain wait time improvement in outpatient laboratory services, and should be considered for application in other areas of health care quality.

Implementing visual management for continuous improvement: barriers, success factors and best practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (17) ◽  
pp. 5574-5588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Kurpjuweit ◽  
Dagmar Reinerth ◽  
Christoph G. Schmidt ◽  
Stephan M. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Success Factors

scholarly journals Modelo Aplicable A La Gestión De Procesos Ágiles De Desarrollo De Software Basado En Cmmi –Dev 1.3 Y Scrum

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Iglesias ◽  
Acellys Messino ◽  
Patty Pedroza ◽  
Ricardo Llanos
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Agile Development ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Model Quality ◽  
Development And Management ◽  
Buenas Prácticas

El presente Artículo de Investigación propone un modelo orientado a las necesidades de calidad total en las organizaciones dedicadas al desarrollo de software conforme a la alineación de los procesos de desarrollo y gestión con los objetivos organizacionales; lo cual hace pertinente la formulación de un modelo de gestión de procesos de desarrollo basado en los principios y prácticas del enfoque ágil, orientado hacia la aplicación de buenas prácticas y procesos de mejora continua. El modelo planteado se denomina SUMM - “Modelo Unificado de Madurez de Scrum” y está orientado a la gestión de procesos ágiles de desarrollo de software enmarcados en las buenas prácticas de CMMI-DEV 1.3 y el marco de trabajo de SCRUM. SUMM consta de cinco niveles de madurez, de acuerdo a la representación por etapas de CMMI - DEV, estos niveles a su vez están compuestos de Metas, Objetivos, Prácticas e Indicadores que permitirán a la organización poder emplear un modelo de desarrollo ágil de calidad, enfocados en procesos de mejora continua.AbstractThis article of Research proposes a model oriented to the needs of total quality in organizations dedicated to software development according to the alignment of development and management processes with organizational objectives, which makes the formulation of relevant management model development process based on the principles and practices of agile approach towards the application of best practices and continuous improvement processes. The proposed model is called SUMM - "Unified Model Scrum Maturity" and is focused on process management software development agile framed in the best practices of CMMI-DEV 1.3 and SCRUM framework. SUMM consists of five maturity levels, according to the staged representation of CMMI - DEV, these levels in turn are composed of Goals, Objectives, Practices and indicators that enable the organization to employ an agile development model quality focused on continuous improvement processes.

scholarly journals Agile and Lean approaches: possibilities of application in local self-government bodies of Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Olena Bortnik
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Iso Standards ◽  
Private And Public

The article considers the concepts and history of Agile and Lean, the possibility of application in local self-government in Ukraine, analysis of the experience of local government in other countries. The aim of the article is to find ways to learn the best experience to improve the work of local self-government in Ukraine.Foreign publications related to the possibility of implementing the Agile methodology in the field of public administration and local self-government are analyzed. Examples of interaction and mutual influence of Agile and Lean are given. Demonstrates how references in international ISO standards to the above-mentioned methodologies, values and ways of thinking are used. ISO standards for management systems are universal and can be applied by both private and public sector organizations. One of the main ideas behind the standards is continuous improvement based on the PDCA cycle, and organizations that have implemented management systems such as ISO 9001 can use international best practices, tools and techniques to improve efficiency and effectiveness, satisfaction of customers and other interested parties and reduce unwanted losses. Such methods are those which are considered in this article. Historically, most management practices have emerged in the private sector, driven by a competitive environment. And then adapts to public administration and local government. In Ukraine, the process of decentralization of local self-government is gaining momentum. Sustainable development of local self-government is the basis for ensuring the comfort and quality of life of the local communities. In a rapidly changing environment, there is a need to find new management approaches. It is proposed to conduct short-term pilot projects to test the Agile method in local governments. It is advisable to include consideration of the methods specified in the article in training and retraining of employees. Continuous improvement requires, first of all, a change in organizational culture and awareness and involvement of staff for the most effective implementation of world best practices.

Electrokit: Power Utility Toolkit-Electricity Loss Reduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto Bonzi ◽  
Eric Boeck ◽  
Michelle Hallack ◽  
Mariana Weiss ◽  
Yuri Daltro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Electric Utilities ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Loss Reduction ◽  
Power Utility ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Power Utilities ◽  
Electricity Utilities

The Electrokit is an initiative created by the IDB to strengthen transformation and continuous improvement of electric utilities in the LAC region. The Electrokit is organized in 16 activities that are common to most electricity utilities. This publication presents the indicators and best practices related to Electricity Loss Reduction. The aim of the toolkit is to provide power utilities, policy and decision-makers access to best practices, current trends, and expertise to: (i) identify challenges, develop a strategy and action plan for addressing them; and (ii) support utilities to be more sustainable, efficient, improve customer experience and accelerate innovation to stay ahead of the rapidly sector transformation.

Best Practices in Data Warehousing from the Federal Perspective

2011 ◽  
pp. 94-99
Author(s):  
Les Pang
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Data Warehousing ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Organizational Success ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Successful Approach ◽  
Enterprise Level ◽  
Military Institutions

Data warehousing has been a successful approach for supporting the important concept of knowledge management — one of the keys to organizational success at the enterprise level. Based on successful implementations of warehousing projects, a number of lessons learned and best practices were derived from these project experiences. The scope was limited to projects funded and implemented by federal agencies, military institutions and organizations directly supporting them.

Project Initiation for Telemedicine Services

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. LeRouge ◽  
Bengisu Tulu ◽  
Suzanne Wood
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Telemedicine Service ◽  
Service Line ◽  
Strategic Vision ◽  
Management Literature

This study investigates project initiation for telemedicine, a technology innovation in healthcare organizations that manifests both intra- and inter-organizational collaboration. Moving from a telemedicine project to a sustainable telemedicine service line can be a challenge for many organizations (LeRouge, Tulu, & Forducey, 2010). Project definition (a.k.a., initiation) sets the strategic vision for a project and has been categorized as the most important stage in a project (C. Gray & Larson, 2008) and a key element for project success (Stah-Le Cardinal & Marle, 2006). Although project management best practices have been applied in many domains, there are few studies that link published best practices to the telemedicine domain. This study first presents a model, resulting from a review of project management literature that specifies the recommended components project definition. Using this model as a foundation, the authors explore how project definition is deployed in the telemedicine domain, using the instantiation of telestroke projects for this study. The authors base their findings on a multi-case qualitative data set, with each case representing a distinct telemedicine business model. Findings from this study explicate how the telestroke project initiation process is collaboratively managed and how this process impacts the overall success of the telemedicine programs through the lens of the five distinct telemedicine business models. Specifically, this study contributes insights on key elements of project initiation in the telemedicine context as well as the effects of the varying business models (focusing on commonalities and differences).

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