Lean Healthcare – Sunnybrook Surgeons given a hands-off way to Kinect

An article in today’s Toronto Star titled “Surgeons given a hands-off way to Kinect” clearly demonstrates how improvements can be realized in our work environment.  One of the concerns in the operating room is maintaining a sterile field during surgery.  Doctors cannot physically touch any devices away from the sterile field for fear of breaking it and have only 1 […]

Contingency Planning For Lean Operations – Part III

Contingency Planning for Lean Operations – Part III   “Deaths spark huge crib recall” was the main headline of today’s Toronto Star (24-Nov-09).  This recall was the result of 4 infant deaths and affects up to 2.1 million units sold.  Click here to access the full article.  This announcement has made headlines throughout North America and is certain to be featured on […]

Contingency Planning For Lean Operations – Part I

Contingency Planning For Lean Operations – Part I Lean operations are driven by effective planning and efficient execution of core activities to ensure optimal performance is achieved and sustained.  The very nature of lean requires extreme attention to detail through all phases of planning and execution.  Upstream operations simply cannot tolerate any disruptions in product supply or process flow without the risk of […]

Problem Solving with OEE – Measuring Success

OEE in Perspective As mentioned in our previous posts, OEE is a terrific metric for measuring and monitoring ongoing performance in your operation.  However, like many metrics, it can become the focus rather than the gage of performance it is intended to be. The objective of measuring OEE is to identify opportunities where improvements can be made or to determine whether the changes to your […]

OEE and Standardized Work

Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE):  Standardized Work After you start collecting OEE data for your processes, you may notice significant variance between departments, shifts, and even employees performing the work.  Of the many aspects that you will be inclined to investigate, standardized work should be one of them. Making sure that all employees are executing a process or sequence of processes […]

OEE, Downtime, and TEEP

We have received several inquiries regarding equipment down time – periods of time when the machine is not scheduled to run.  We consider this to be scheduled down time or idle time and does not affect Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), since no production was planned during this period. OEE measures overall equipment effectiveness during planned production or SCHEDULED up time.  Do […]