LEAN lab and Blood Bank

[yiams]

BBTalkers,

I joined this forum awhile back but have not been a participant. It is an excellent source of answers, though. I need a few. Has anyone been through a LEAN laboratory revision? A group from our lab is going on a site visit Tuesday to visit a nearby LEAN re-organized lab. I would be interested in good and bad experiences of anyone who has been through this process, how it has helped or hurt your laboratory and (since this is a Blood Bank forum) how it impacted your transfusion service (my area, obviously). And, did you have any help getting through the process? Did you have guidance from any corporation, consultants or other services or did you go it alone. Any references, either paper or electronic, might also be useful.

Feel free to reply to the list or to contact me privately at my work e-mail of: (removed by admin to help avoid spam. Please send a private message to this user)

Thanks,

Randall D. Williams MT(ASCP)BB

[donellda]

We are not doing Lean but I saw a session on it at the MABB last fall and was impressed. I have been using some of the concepts just to make our blood bank a little more efficient and I have managed to make one of our workstations a bit easier as far as our paperwork. My husband just attended a Lean training program the other day (this is for the manufacturing sector though). I think that one of the health systems in our area has gone through it. If I hear from any of my old friends from there (I was employed there), I'll send the info your way.

[Lcsmrz]

Whether it's LEAN, Six Sigma, or any other TDM-type program, anything that makes people revisit their processes and streamline them is worth it !!

[Eoin]

Bloodbanking now comes under an EU Directive in Ireland. The authorised body to oversee this and licence bloodbanks is the Irish Medicine Board. ISO15189 accreditation is also required as part of this process. This has made us look at all our processes in some detail, and I have come to the conclusion that Lean will be the way of the future.

If anyone has gone through this process I would also be interested in their thoughts. Has it had a great impact? Also what are the most beneficial aspects of the process.

Many Thanks Eoin:confused:

[Lcsmrz]

Looking at your processes is very good for the soul. Common things that we routinely do tend to disappear when the question "why" is asked -- or better yet, "show me the standard or regulation", since I know it doesn't exist.

I don't like to accept "cuz that's what we've always done it" or "cuz that's the way we like to do it here" as an answer, but you'll be surprised how often I hear that. Another common one is "cuz we were cited for not doing that", only to find out that the citation was issued in the 70's.

I attempted to LEAN a blood bank once, only to have it unLEAN'd by my predecessor, so I was told. Some old blood bankers are pretty set in their ways ...

I like the ISO 15189 format much better than others, and still think any TQM-type program is helpful.

[John C. Staley]

I'm one of those old blood bankers Larry is referring to.

As far as I've seen it's just the most current "management fad of the week"(MFOW) and I've seen a lot of them come and go over the years. All of them have had some good aspects and some not so good. The problems I have seen from these "fads" is that they were developed for industry not health care and I don't care what you say we are not the same as a potato chip factory!!

We are constantly evaluating our processes and don't need any funny colored belts to do it. My staff are always asking why we are doing something a certain way when they see a "new and better" way to do it. Would formal training in one more MFOW be of any use, maybe, but just as likely not.

If you find a system the works more power to you. If you find a way to modify it to be more relevant to the heathcare setting you've just found you early retirement.

[Franklyn]

Whether it's LEAN, Six Sigma, or any other TDM-type program, anything that makes people revisit their processes and streamline them is worth it !!

I have to agree! I have been through LEAN, Six Sigma, FMEA, etc and any structured method of looking at a process is of value. But just because it wasn't invented for health care doesn't make it any less valuable. In the QA/QM spectrum, health care is still living in the boonies and needs to catch up. A bit of adaptation and creativity is all you really need to apply any of the systems to your operation. I have not found FMEAs to be very useful and Six Sigma really comes down to the project lead and carefully defining the scope of your project. Lean looks at the whole process at a higher level and doesn't get bogged down in the details. However, I attended an Ortho presentation on LEAN and felt I had wasted 4 hours of my day - I had a background in Lean prior to attending and I was LOST in their lecture.

The reason why the various FOTW fail is lack of buy-in and support by all the players. Period. If you are going to make an effort to improve things, you need to commit to it and be willing to get out of your comfort zone and ask the "why" questions. It is never easy but usually very worth it.

[Mabel Adams]

One other reason that the FTOW fails is that management expects we can all keep doing our regular jobs (usually short-staffed) and still have time to invest in this project. I remember a teleconference on Six Sigma that talked about training leaders and assigning them to that work for a period of time, but our boss wanted to do it on top of everything else we were doing. The resources must be provided or the process simply won't work as advertised.

[Franklyn]

Darn Tootin'

There is a finite amount of staff time available for any project. Management must be willing to allocate the time so that the project can be completed, particularly when bench staff are an integral part of the project! Any improvement project is driven from the top, down. They only succeed, however, from the bottom, up.

[Bamster]

Hi,

I am a senior studying operations management and for my honors thesis I am trying give suggestions to my fathers friends blood bank to make it more lean. Do you guys have any suggestion as to what the first things I should do? I started already by doing a value stream map of the place which has given me a great insight as to how the place works but has not really given me much of improvement. I was also thinking of trying to do a 5s workshop with the employees any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

B

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

My goodness, I hope they don't try and bring lean into my lab.

I'm about 500 pounds and expanding!