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02/16/2012 01:57 PM
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Hello. I work as a disease manager at a large health solutions company (i.e. health insurance). My experience with Lean has so far been limited to one 4 hour "Lean Essentials" training session. It was a great overview of what Lean is all about. As part of the development of our programs, my manager has tagged me to explore and develop some kind of Lean process for our team. It doesn't have to be big. I know we could use some Kaisen with regard to our processes. I was wondering if anyone out there could share some of their Kaizen experience in a health insurance environment.
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02/17/2012 12:31 PM
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Hello,
I would recommend that you consider doing a 5S event with your team. 5S if done correctly can lead to some great efficiencies. We will guarantee a department a 50% increase in productivity if they have not completed a 5S exercise in the past, and it always beats our estimates. (only if done correctly) That is the key. Most people look at 5S as a house cleaning, which is only part of the 5S event. 5S is a tool which helps to provide a discipline to any process to keep it organized, efficient and from growing out of control. (adding clutter). Thus, daily 5S duties and monthly 5S audits is the Key to making this a lasting effort for a team.
Look up 5S on the internet and do not skip any steps in the process. Is always best when done with a person who thoroughly understands, but I have seen some fairly good success with a newbie.
1. Sort - Get rid of clutter
2. Set in Order - Organize the work area
3. Shine - Clean to like new condition.
4. Standardize - Establish written standards for order and cleanliness.
5. Sustain - Maintain the standards through training, commitment and discpline. (audits)
Good Luck
Phil
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02/17/2012 12:31 PM
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Christina,
I recommend talking to Becky Finnegan at Management and Network Services ( bfinnegan@mnsnetwork.com ). They perform case management and work with a number of different insurance companies. They have also done a tremendous job implementing lean across their whole business.
Brent
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02/17/2012 12:32 PM
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Dr. M. Porter's Value Statement
This thread is not an example of "kaizen" in an insurance company but I think it is a discussion of what lean should mean to a "health solutions company". Any discussion of lean in a new industry has to include a discussion of Value. This thread is a good place to start.
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02/17/2012 12:32 PM
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Christina,
Do some research on 'request for quote' , 'grant processing' from the foundation world, 'claim processing' that should give you a few good examples. Organizations making improvement in this area tend to focus (similarly to manufacturing) on reducing batch process and moving to some type of flow. I'm assuming your business is primarily focused on processing health insurance claims. So opportunities might include: What causes a claim submission to be incomplete or inaccurate...how can you assist the claimant in getting it right the first time, people work on multiple claims at one time to keep busy...why can't one claim be taken and worked to conclusion before starting the next one...so you look for issues/obstacles that impede working a claim to the finish. There are a couple of simulations available to see how lean works in an office environment, you might do some research and buy a kit. Consider getting involved with the Asso. of Manufacturing Excellence (AME). Outside of LEI they are one of the best sources for learning about lean. their next Annual Conference is in Chicago this fall. Quite a few companies outside of the manufacturing world participate in this organization. If you would like to talk...you can easily find my name on the internet.
Best wishes,
Michael Bremer
Chicagoland Lean Enterprise Consortium
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02/24/2012 01:40 PM
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Thank you for your response. I actually did a power point presentation for my team members on 5S several months ago. But perhaps a refresher wouldn't be a bad idea. We all work at home in various types of home office settings, so setting standards might be a challenge. I know one challenge for myself is getting rid of paper files. I am always so afraid of my home internet going down and not being able to access information, that I probably keep more paper files than I should. But even in the absence of that fear, I think many of us need some help on how to organize our work-related resources in the system. We get SO MANY E-MAILS with information that we are supposed to remember and incorporate into our work processes. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say, I never know where or how to store those.
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06/08/2012 05:23 PM
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Hi Christina,
Your mention of emails that you need to incorporate into your process makes me wonder about how you have documented your "one best way" to do your process. Developing standardized work that clearly describes the safest, highest quality, fastest and lowest cost way to do the work is a key tenet of leaning out a process. These email changes you get now should be replaced by revisions to the standard work.
It sounds like you have a number of people in various locations doing the same tasks. It would be helpful if you could get a number of those people together to develop that standard work as each of them probably has certain portions of the process where they have developed a better technique than others. Frequently, video recording of people doing the process is a good way to start the analysis. Video may be the only way for your remote people to participate in the improvement effort.
You have to explain to people that they aren't trying to determine who does the job the best. Their objective is to start with "how do we create value for the customer"; then "what absolutely must happen to create that value", then design one best way to create that value with minimum waste. Document clearly what the work content is, what sequence it needs to be done in and how long each step should take.
This standard work, once established, becomes the foundation for improvement. All who do that work should commit to following the standard work as it has been agreed upon unless there has been an improvement idea that has been determined to improve safety, quality, speed, cost. The standard work is then updated to reflect the new best way and everyone adheres rigidly to that new standard.
Hope this helps.
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06/11/2012 10:59 AM
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Hi Christina
First of all Kaizen is actually just a steady stream of small improvements, as opposed to the big events (that Japanese names does not sound good in English). My adice is talk to your team and get their ideas, try to find what the main problems are to better performance from them, and then elimate them one by one.
Good Lean and Good Kaizen are about getting everyone involved.
Live Lean and Prosper
Robert Drescher
ELSE Inc.
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06/18/2012 10:50 AM
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Christina, I'm new to the forum and just found your post. I'd love to chat about this if you're still interested. It would be helpful to me to work out some solutions from your perspective.
I've been mapping and consulting a large medical billing company.
We've mapped over 150 processes.
I also have tools that I've built that may help you (I'm a programmer as well)
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06/19/2012 02:12 PM
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Christina,
I really like what Ed said below.
Classically, what a lean sensei (teacher) would tell you is, "Start from need." Where are your problems? What problem is small-scale enough yet definitely fixable and offers an early "win." You don't want people to take on something with a really big scope and get frustrated with your first project. They may not give lean another chance. As they say, "Eat the elephant one bite at a time."
Once you've identified that problem, go to the gemba (where the work is done) to observe, then value stream map it. The waste you see will point to what waste needs to be eliminated. Apply lean tools where needed - often these will be standardized work and 5S - but first understand a problem before using a lean tool. You don't want to let tools drive the process. First you determine problems, then apply the right tools.
Best of success to you.
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