LocalGovTV focuses on all the usual red herrings
I got an email from LocalGovTV asking for case studies, the extract is below. Your efficiency case studies wanted for LocalGovTV As local authorities prepare for the Budget announcement on 24th March, and the possibility of more spending cuts, LocalGovTV is looking for your efficiency case studies. How is your council countering the recession by [...]
Local Government Association bans 250 words
The Local Government Association in the UK recently published its annual list of 250 words and phrases that local councils should not use. Some of them are great: clienting (What is that?) trialogue (When three people talk I suppose.) predictors of beaconicity (Is that a disease?) But some of them are quite ordinary words: output [...]
Article for Qualityworld magazine
Qualityworld, the magazine of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI), asked me as a Lean Service expert, to contribute a reply to the Help Desk section of their March 2010 edition. The Help Desk question was: I’ve heard about lean in manufacturing, but how can I use this tool in a service environment? My answer was: [...]
If you think targets don’t influence service design
A great programme from The Report on BBC Radio 4 from 17th Dec 2009 on how response times targets for ambulance services are distorting service design to concentrate resources too much in cities and towns and to have too many single responder vehicles that send a single paramedic that can’t carry patients rather than a [...]
PDSA applied to PDSA
I was once at a meeting of consultants and we had got to the end of an interesting day learning about new ideas regarding organisations and how to improve them. The volunteer chair of the meeting got to the part of the meeting where we would suggest things that were good and things that we [...]
Targets are all SMART, let’s make measures VVAPID
For many years I have been told that targets should be SMART. This means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. Well actually, all targets are already SMART: SimplisticMeaninglessArbitraryRoad blocksTorture Simplistic Targets are simplistic. Targets are a sledgehammer to crack a nut and they come with no context or method. Targets are imposed [...]
Can’t get no dissatisfaction
The light works in my girlfriend’s kitchen. I bet the light works in your kitchen and you don’t even think about it. Well the strip light in this kitchen hasn’t worked properly for ages. For the want of 99 pence worth of a new starter, we have both been getting up on a chair to [...]
Jim Womack Reflects
In Jim Womack’s latest e-letter he describes a visit to the Arsenale in Venice where they pioneered flow systems in building war ships way back in the 15th century. All this looking backward made him wonder why Lean is not more widespread than it is. Reflecting on the spread of Lean he says, …we haven’t [...]
Use and Misuse of Takt Time in Services
I had an interesting discussion about takt time not so long ago and I have been mulling over what was said regarding the use of takt time in service organisations. Firstly, what is takt time? Well ‘takt’ is a German word meaning ‘rhythm’ or ‘drum-beat’. Takt time describes the average time between every instance of [...]
Targets in A&E make people cheat
A couple of days ago I wrote about an analysis of Accident and Emergency department (A&E) waiting times that the NHS Information Centre released. It showed that a disproportionate number of patients were seen to in the 10 minutes before the 4 hours waiting time target. The Nursing Times ran a survey in response to [...]
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