Applications of lean thinking: a briefing document

This report has been put together by the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) at the University of Salford for the Department of Health. The need for the report grew out of two main simple questions, o Is Lean applicable in sectors other than manufacturing? o Can the service delivery sector learn from the success of lean in manufacturing and realise the benefits of its implementation?The aim of the report is to list together examples of lean thinking as it is evidenced in the public and private service sector. Following a review of various sources a catalogue of evidence is put together in an organised manner which demonstrates that Lean principles and techniques, when applied rigorously and throughout an entire organization/unit, they can have a positive impact on productivity, cost, quality, and timely delivery of services

A new cosmology of risks and crises time for a radical shift in paradigm and practice

Crisis management theory and practice was in the main elaborated in the late 70s and 80s and developed and implemented in the 90s. We now have a rich knowledge of crisis intelligence and best practices. But, even if we can be proud of that advance, a further challenge remains: crises in the 21st century differ?structurally? from those we had to deal with in the last century. By way of example, the disparity between now and then is equivalent to that which existed between the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the First. Thus, if we stick to former paradigms ?we are bound to be defeated in every battle?. Even if it is extremely difficult to forge new routes into Terrae Incognitae, it is vital to do so ? or at least to try.Crises, emerging crises, discontinuity, decision-making

An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions

Constructing and Testing Practical Procedures for Describing a Corporate Culture: The Electric Troublemen

During the 1980s much attention was focused on trying to understand and apply the concept of corporate culture. Scholars and practitioners worked on clarifying the definition of culture as it applies to workplace settings. Scholars adapted the anthropological concepts of culture to fit within the framework of a business organization. Both scholars and practitioners attempted to investigate the cultures of many organizations throughout the business world. Scholars conducted lengthy case studies and used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Business world practitioners conducted short studies and used mostly quantitative survey techniques. What was found was that the scholarly approach took too long to perform and the business world practitioner\u27s approach produced very little information about an organization\u27s workplace culture. This research project attempted to apply qualitative research techniques in a way that recognizes the practical limits placed on time, talent, and materials in the business world. More specifically, a model of workplace culture and a procedure for describing and profiling a corporate culture were developed and tested. The model consists of three components: one that helps to identify whether or not an organization has a healthy culture, one that describes the characteristics that make up the content of a culture, and one that classifies a culture according to categories that are useful for comparing one culture to another. The procedure consists of three qualitative data gathering techniques: observation, interview, and historical document analysis; and the analysis procedure involves processing thick description data. The model and the procedure were tested by describing and profiling the subculture of a small group of employees, known as electric troublemen, who work for the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. Data collection and analysis took approximately 360 hours to complete, resulting in a profile that is both interesting and informative

A Case Study Of A Community College’s Basic Firefighter Program And Its Capacity To Meet Regional Firefighting Requirements

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the firefighter training programs offered at a local community college and the capacity of these programs for meeting the needs of local stakeholders. The stakeholders that were considered include current students, graduates, local firefighting officials, and citizens who are currently served by this county’s emergency services. A review of the current firefighter program components at this North Carolina community college will be used to determine whether changes should be made to better prepare firefighting candidates for professional departments within the local county. The study applies a case study research design using data derived from surveys, interviews, an analysis of the current curriculum, and regional emergency response data. Overall, this study illustrates an industry shift and a need to modify the current training program. Recommendation were made for these modifications consistent with study’s results

Using Experiments to Foster Innovation and Improve the Effectiveness of Energy Efficiency Programs

This paper argues that the establishment of a process designed to manage innovation must be developed in California to foster the creation of needed program improvements and develop new and more effective energy efficiency delivery programs. This paper discusses several key institutional problems that must be overcome to achieve significant progress

Time out : organizational training for improvisation in lifesaving critial teams

textExemplified by fire crews, SWAT teams, and emergency surgical units, critical teams are a subset of action teams whose work is marked by finality, pressure, and potentially fatal outcomes (Ishak & Ballard, 2012). Using communicative and temporal lenses, this study investigates how organizations prime and prepare their embedded critical teams to deal with improvisation. This study explicates how organizations both encourage and discourage improvisation for their embedded critical teams. Throughout the training process, organizations implement a structured yet flexible “roadmap”-type approach to critical team work, an approach that is encapsulated through three training goals. The first goal is to make events routine to members. The second goal is to help members deal with non-routine events. The third goal is to help members understand how to differentiate between what is routine and non-routine. The grounded theory analysis in this study also surfaced three tools that are used within the parameters of the roadmap approach: experience, communicative decision making, and sensemaking. Using Dewey’s (1939, 1958) theory of experience, I introduce a middle-range adapted theory of critical team experience. In this theory, experience and sensemaking are synthesized through communicative decision making to produce decisions, actions, and outcomes in time-limited, specialized, stressful environments. Critical teams have unique temporal patterns that must be considered in any study of their work. Partially based on the nested phase model (Ishak & Ballard, 2012), I also identify three phases of critical team process as critical-interactive, meaning that they are specific to action/critical teams, and they are engaged in by critical teams for the expressed purpose of interaction. These phases are simulation, adaptation, and debriefing. These tools and phases are then placed in the Critical-Action-Response Training Outcomes Grid (CARTOG) to create nine interactions that are useful in implementing a structured yet flexible approach to improvisation in the work of critical teams. Data collection consisted of field observations, semi-structured interviews, and impromptu interviews at work sites. In total, I engaged in 55 hours of field observations at 10 sites. I conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with members of wildland and urban fire crews; emergency medical teams; and tactical teams, including SWAT teams and a bomb squad. I also offer practical implications and future directions for research on the temporal and communicative aspects of critical teams, their parent organizations, and considerations of improvisation in their work.Communication Studie

Organizational Management of Distance Learning: An Analysis of Teacher Feedback Throughout Hampton Roads Public High Schools During the Covid-19 Pandemic Response

Public schools throughout the United States experienced closures and transitions to online curriculum in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of the policies and strategies implemented to manage teaching faculty were hastily designed and employed out of necessity. This study sought to examine organizational management policies and strategies throughout public high schools in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia through teaching faculty perspectives. This cross-sectional study examined descriptive and correlational statistics of survey responses to determine and evaluate how schools managed communication, responsibilities and delegation, and training for distance learning in order to provide policy recommendations for the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic and future emergency action plans. Results from the survey indicated mostly positive teacher feedback to policies and strategies on communication and training. While the research did not find policies and strategies for responsibilities and delegation consistent throughout schools in region, this research discovered correlations between teachers’ opinions and organizational strategies for delegation. Finally, this study provides practical recommendations as well as considerations for further research on organizational management in public schools

A Comparison of Two Debriefing Methods on Clinical Reasoning Outcomes, Learner Satisfaction with Debriefing and Reflection, Clinical Learning and Clinical Reasoning, and Psychological Safety of Nurse Orientees in Simulation-Based Education

Simulation-based education is a teaching method used successfully in military, aviation, and medical education; however, the evidence rarely indicates how debriefing affects the learners’ experiences. Debriefing is an essential component of simulation-based education that fosters conceptual learning, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two different debriefing methods on nurses’ perceptions of psychological safety, satisfaction with development of clinical reasoning skills, and satisfaction with learning. In this quasi-experimental, posttest study the researcher explored the effect of each debriefing method. Using the 18-item Satisfaction with Simulation Experience Scale developed by Levett-Jones et al. (2011), the researcher measured learners’ satisfaction with the simulation learning experience. The researcher developed a visual analog scale to measure the learner’s perceived psychological safety. During the simulation learning experience part of an orientation, the researcher used two debriefing methods using the 3D Model of Debriefing: (1) Defusing, Discovering and Deepening (3D-DDD) and (2) the DEBRIEF method. The literature clearly articulates how these models are distinct in how debriefing is executed in the simulation experience. The “debriefers” received appropriate training on the models and were then verified by the investigator for treatment fidelity. After each debrief method, the researcher measured the participants’ experiences including psychological safety and satisfaction, as well as clinical reasoning skills. The researcher divided study participants into two groups and administered one of the two debriefing models. By alternating debrief methods, the researcher ensured that all groups in each month were debriefed using the same method. Both methods resulted in psychological safety and satisfaction. There were no statistically significant differences in either debrief method for the SSES, VAS, and case study scores. The analysis did not identify any meaningful relationships between a learner’s characteristics and satisfaction in debriefing and reflection, self-reported clinical reasoning, and clinical learning. The literature recognizes debriefing as a vital teaching strategy, but there remains minimal research on how to debrief, which methods are effective at achieving learning outcomes, and which are best at fulfilling an individual’s psychological safety

Training Competences in Industrial Risk Prevention with Lego® Serious Play®: A Case Study

This paper proposes the use of the Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) methodology as a facilitating tool for the introduction of competences for Industrial Risk Prevention by engineering students from the industrial branch (electrical, electronic, mechanical and technological engineering), presenting the results obtained in the Universities of Cadiz and Seville in the academic years 2017–2019. Current Spanish legislation does not reserve any special legal attribution, nor does it require specific competence in occupational risk prevention for the regulated profession of a technical industrial engineer (Order CIN 351:2009), and only does so in a generic way for that of an industrial engineer (Order CIN 311:2009). However, these universities consider the training in occupational health and safety for these future graduates as an essential objective in order to develop them for their careers in the industry. The approach is based on a series of challenges proposed (risk assessments, safety inspections, accident investigations and fire protection measures, among others), thanks to the use of “gamification” dynamics with Lego® Serious Play®. In order to carry the training out, a set of specific variables (industrial sector, legal and regulatory framework, business organization and production system), and transversal ones (leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and communication), are incorporated. Through group models, it is possible to identify dangerous situations, establish causes, share and discuss alternative proposals and analyze the economic, environmental and organizational impact of the technical solutions studied, as well as take the appropriate decisions, in a creative, stimulating, inclusive and innovative context. In this way, the theoretical knowledge which is acquired is applied to improve safety and health at work and foster the prevention of occupational risks, promoting the commitment, effort, motivation and proactive participation of the student teams.Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities / European Social Fund: Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2017-22222