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Preventable Harm

13 June, 2016 by James Lawther 3 Comments

A definition: The unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment), that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalisation, or that results in death. A simpler definition: A medical accident. A few statistics: The medical industry 2014: The estimated number of premature deaths in US hospitals […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: aviation, blame, error proofing, management style, medicine

4 Ways to Solve a Problem

8 June, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

The one that got away

An apocryphal story: A man you know is hungry.  There are 4 ways you could solve his problem: Slap him about a bit. This will take his mind of it.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fish to eat.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fishing rod and show them how to fish.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Develop a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, error proofing, problem solving, root cause analysis

The Rules of the Workplace

27 September, 2015 by James Lawther 3 Comments

The 20 rules: Prioritise the work Don’t make your customers wait There is always more work than people Study the work Understand how the work works Standardise the work If the work is important write it down Train your staff Make the work easy Build systems Stream line the work Find the bottleneck Clean the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Techniques, Wild Cards Tagged With: bottleneck, communication, customer focus, effective meetings, error proofing, five s, gemba, lean thinking, learning, process mapping, service improvement, SlideShare, standardisation, systems thinking, visual management

Rule 9: Make the Work Easy

12 July, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Error Proof

How can you make life simple? Now you understand the work how could you make it easier?  How could you change your systems and processes so that the work becomes more: 1. Error Proof? Image by connectors distribution box 2. Omission Proof? Image by Kiyo_Tatsu 3. Tamper Proof? Image by Michael 4. Easy to Teach? Image by […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: error proofing, gemba, simplicity

Should You Punish Mistakes?

2 January, 2014 by James Lawther 22 Comments

Should You Punish Mistakes? Bob Hoover's plane

If somebody made a mistake that nearly killed you, would you punish the mistake? In 1989 there was an air show at Brown Field in San Diego. The test pilot Bob Hoover was taking thrill-seekers for flights in his Shrike Commander, a small, piston-powered, passenger plane.  The passengers were known as “Hoover’s Heavers” — more often […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: aviation, blame, error proofing, video

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