Lean Laboratory
Three Ways Lean Lab Projects Create an Empowered Workforce And Why That’s Important
By engaging employees while implementing Lean principles, companies create a culture of accountability, collaboration, and motivation. The positive outcomes of this drives employee empowerment in three key ways. Ultimately, employee engagement in Lean Lab projects leads to a more empowered and invested workforce, that benefits the overall success of the company.
The importance of ‘triage’ in variable effort work packages in quality control teams
Teams with high variability in incoming workload, face significant challenges in trying to organize their work in a fast productive manner. A quick controlled Triage process can boost performance without overloading team resources.
Five Ways Lean Lab can help you become a Greener Lab
Improving the environmental impact of the lab might not be the initial goal of a Lean Lab project but it can be a beneficial outcome without any extra effort or expenditure.
Are Dedicated Paperwork Reviewers a good idea for your QC Lab?
In labs, testing often takes priority while the review is somewhat of an afterthought. However, it is important to realise that until the results are reviewed and approved, we should not consider a test to be completed. There are several reasons why review may not be completed promptly, including volatile incoming workloads and changing/competing priorities.
Structured Problem Solving – The key to Lean?
Companies that have successfully implemented Lean understand that the “Stability” or foundation the House of Lean is built upon is Structured Problem Solving. The iterative improvement loop offered by Structured Problem Solving allows for the correct Lean tools to be used at the correct time and in the correct way.
Understanding Lean Lab for Operations Excellence Teams
Service level is a key deliverable in any lean lab project, and the business will not tolerate poor lead time performance in order to deliver benefits elsewhere.
When designing lean lab solutions, a key design target is to be as productive as possible, while delivering consistently against the lead time targets of the business.
Improving Laboratory Productivity after Workload Increases
Has your QC Lab grown naturally over a period of time from a small lab into a bigger lab due to a growth in business demand? Are your employees under a lot of stress with never ending emails and phone calls from production and supply chain looking for sample approval? This expansion in activity is great news for the business but is most likely causing operational problems in your lab.
The Importance of Visual Management in a Lean Laboratory
A Laboratory is usually a busy environment with many different activities simultaneously in progress. Having a good understanding of what is happening with each sample and test, or at least having quick access to that information is essential to the smooth running of that lab. Consequently, the importance of good, effective and up to date Visual Management cannot be overstated.
Surge Capacity in Labs
One of the key goals of ‘Lean Lab’ is to create lab processes that operate and are resourced at the ‘levelled demand rate’. This enables the Lab to efficiently and productively meet the needs of the business.
3 Important Questions to Consider when Designing Labs with Lean in Mind
Building (or refurbishing) laboratories is a costly and time-consuming activity for a company. Poorly designed spaces can be costly in terms of lost productivity, slower turn around times and higher inventory of equipment and consumables.
