Building relationships and advancing Lean in Washington State ...

Premera continues to buck stereotypes and build relationships through Lean

Lean, Toyota?s Production System, has been adopted by companies everywhere to operate more efficiently. Premera is no exception ? we?ve used Lean to streamline work processes and eliminate waste since 2005. Along the way, we?ve helped community organizations, a local school, medical providers, and others to apply Lean principles in an office setting. Now, we?ve taken the next step to advance Lean?in state government.

Tom Cahill, Premera?s Director of Lean, recently trained Washington?s Health Care Authority (HCA) in Lean methods, resulting in wins for both the HCA and Premera. Together, they identified and eliminated multiple steps for Medicaid-eligible members. We?ll all benefit from these improvements through administrative cost savings and more efficient, and timely, processes.

Premera?s Lean work with state government didn?t stop with the HCA training. On October 23-24, Premera participated in Washington?s second annual Lean Summit, which included presentations from local industry and business leaders. Premera led two break-out sessions during the summit ? one on ?visual management? and another on spotting waste hiding in plain sight. The ?7 Wastes of Lean? workshop received the highest rating out of all 21 training workshops delivered by the private sector.

?Most people don?t understand how Lean can work in an office environment, and certainly don?t consider health insurers efficient,? said Cahill. ?We?re bucking the stereotypes. We?re still getting phone calls with questions on how to implement Lean.?

Sharing Lean practices and working together to improve processes benefits everyone involved in the healthcare system: providers, patients, members and state residents.

?We have the unique opportunity to help the government make some meaningful changes,? said Tom. ?You can?t become Lean by working in a silo. It?s about involving everyone who is part of the value stream and using Lean to build relationships that ultimately benefit everyone.?

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Source: http://premeranews.com/2012/11/19/building-relationships-and-advancing-lean-in-washington-state/

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