Jacob Caron ‐ orthopedic surgeon , Wendy van Limpt ‐ team leader, Tessa Oerlemans ‐ lean expert, Marcel Boonen ‐ head of unit   Contact 

Andon – KaizenElisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Method

Team member rings Andon bell.

Follow-up on Kaizens and completing the right side of the form. Team leader takes over daily work.

Team member completes left side of the Kaizen form.

Team member runs into a problem.

KAIZEN FORM PURPOSE : TEACH OUR TEAM "DEEP PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS"

1. TODAY'S DATE 2. DEPT A. WHAT COUNTERMEASURES CAN BE TAKEN3. YOUR NAME TODAY’S FIX

4. DESCIBE THE PROBLEM

PREVENTATIVE ACTION

5. LIST AND QUANTIFY THE WASTES ANNUAL LABOR

O T M W P I D (@ 75¢ PER MIN)

ANNUAL

MATERIALS

(COST + 15%)

6. POSSIBLE ROOT CAUSES B. WHAT COUNTERMEASURES WILL BE TAKEN A P C D

7. LEAD AGREEMENT ON PROBLEM 1 C. LEAD AGREEMENT ON PLAN D. DATE

COMPLETED

2 3STOP

j.caron@elisabeth.nl

Results

• Employees are facilitated to apply the Kaizen method as team leaders take over their tasks.• Team leaders help and coach the employees during Kaizens.• Employees feel respected and encouraged to analyze problems. • Team leaders are increasingly involved in the daily work of their team members. • Follow up of current forms is visualized on a public Kaizen board. • The number of ongoing and completed Kaizens has increased since the start of this experiment.

Results for the patientKaizens can improve working processes for nursing staff, thus creating more value for patients. Patient safety improves due to standardization of protocols and waiting time is reduced due to more efficient processes. Furthermore, processes are visualized and clear to everyone, including our patients.

Key for successTeam leaders facilitate an increase in problem solving capacity of team members, by coaching and taking over work activities. This leads to an increasing number of Kaizens and more sustainable results.

Future stepsTruly encouraging team members requires an important change in leadership-style for team leaders. This posters shows an increased participation of team members in problem solving activities because they are actively supported by their team leaders. Our advice to team leaders is to leave their desk more often and to be actively present on the work floor.

Introduction

Employees of the Elisabeth-Tweesteden Hospital in Tilburg (The Netherlands) are encouraged to use a Kaizen form when they run into a problem during their daily work activities.

The Kaizen form challenges employees to first thoroughly analyze the problem and its possible causes (filling in the left side of the form), before they start working on possible solutions (filling in the right side of the form). This approach aims to increase the problem solving capacity of employees, and it creates sustainable results.

The use of the Kaizen form is most successful when employees are facilitated to address problems immediately. Yet, our nursing staff did not always find the time to fill in the forms during their daily work.

To overcome this problem, an experiment was designed at the orthopedic ward using the ‘Andon bell’: once a problem occurs, the staff member can ring a bell after which a team leader takes over the task. This allows the staff member to start completing the left side of the Kaizen form immediately. Later on, the employee and his/her coach discuss the Kaizen and plan further steps (the right side of the Kaizen form).

Contact

Jacob Caron - orthopedic surgeon, Wendy van Limpt - team leader, Tessa Oerlemans - lean expert, Marcel Boonen - head of unit