PHF is pleased to announce the publication of Modular kaizen: Dealing with Disruptions, authored by Ron Bialek, Grace L Duffy, and John (Jack) W. Moran. This book was made possible by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Public Health Improvement Initiative.
Written in order to assist the public health community in realizing improvements in daily processes in a short time period and with great success, this text introduces a modified version of Kaizen, the Japanese term for "good change." Kaizen is continuous improvement towards a standard of excellence. A traditional Kaizen event is a problem-solving approach that requires training and facilitation to analyze and re-orient a process. The overall concept of Kaizen is a system that encourages everyone to suggest incremental changes, eliminating “one time” improvement events. Under Kaizen the organization is constantly improving. Kaizen does well in an organization that encourages and rewards teamwork and a customer-centric culture, using daily work management at all levels to make individual improvement.
This book is about the use of Modular kaizen, defined as an improvement or redesign project planned along a timeline that recognizes the highly volatile nature of the public health organization’s core business processes. High-priority projects are planned at the senior leadership level to establish realistic milestones, resources, and measurements to ensure a return on investment that includes not only financial commitment but also the involvement of highly skilled facilitators and subject matter experts.
A Modular kaizen approach minimizes disruptions by making sure no “act” is executed until “check” has been done to establish the baseline measurement of where a disruption begins. When any action is taken, it is taken in an informed manner and is short-term in nature. Once the disruption is fully understood, it is appropriate to charter a team to develop a plan using the complete PDCA cycle that can then be implemented. This second cycle of “check” and “act” validates (checks) the final improved outcome and acts to document the changes for future sustainability.
Read Modular kaizen: Dealing with Disruptions and learn how to improve your public health department to effect "good change".