Lean
Chugachmiut's Lean Initiatives
Cultural Background |
Training Within Industry (TWI) | |
| Kaizen and the Tools of Lean | Performance Measurement | |
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Lean Supply Chain | |
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Lean Lexicon | |
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Lean Library | |
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As we have discovered, Lean is the implementation of a scientific management system. We use the “Deming Cycle” of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) [or alternatively the “Nolan Cycle” of Plan, Do, Check, Adjust (PDCA)] to improve our processes using the various Lean tools. The Deming Cycle requires us to act on facts, which requires us to measure our performance by establishing our “Baseline” of performance, “Benchmarking” our performance against our peers, and measuring the improvement in performance. At Chugachmiut this required a change in our culture.
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I also want to give credit to the Chugachmiut Board of Directors, who allowed us to explore and implement our Lean initiative. As former board chair Larry Evanoff told a group of Native leaders in Alaska, “We heard enough talk, just get it done.” We have been working hard on getting it done since then. Chugachmiut is currently managing 12 strategic and operational initiatives ranging from a complete reorganization of the health care system to installation of a new financial accounting software system to planning for implementation of an Electronic Records Management system. Lean has worked for Chugachmiut. |