The Lean Institute Africa (LIA) is preparing to host its eighth Lean Management Summit to highlight how lean management systems can boost efficiency and customer service in both the private and public sectors.
Attendees will be able to take part in a variety of workshops on the 19th of October 2016 followed by the two-day summit on the 20th and 21st of October 2016 at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town.
The theme of the 2016 summit is “Building Capability in Challenging Times”, where speakers will demonstrate how a simple, disciplined approach to systems and operations has the potential to revolutionise efficiency and customer experience. Speakers will share insights into: getting started with lean management; overcoming difficulties in implementation; as well as delving deeper into particular lean concepts.
Key speakers at this year’s summit include Author of Toyota Kata and winner of the Shingo Prize, the world’s highest standard for operational excellence, Mike Rother; CEO at Frere Hospital, Dr Rolene Wagner; Executive Manager Operations at Airbus Defence and Space, Deon Styger; and Founder and Chair of LIA and Emeritus Professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB), Professor Norman Faull, among others.
“Lean management can have an enormous impact on the way an organisation functions, and its popularity is growing as people experience how quickly lean can impact customers, staff morale and budget by eliminating waste,” said Professor Faull.
Professor Faull added that lean management methods have been long respected in the private sector and have also shown strong results in improving efficiencies in SA’s notoriously challenged public sector, notably in health services and hospitals. In an interview with eHealthNews, Professor Faull explained how LIA collaborated with the Gauteng DoH to eliminate wastage in four public hospitals.
Prof Faull will touch on his experience in Gauteng during his presentation: ‘What government needs to get right,’ and will also explain how lean management systems have been used to cut queues and waiting times dramatically in several other hospitals around the country by addressing simple things like punctuality, absenteeism and a shift from batch processing to individual processing.
On the 19th there will be workshops throughout the day, including a morning session where the Groote Schuur Hospital team will share how they have institutionalised the principles and practices adapted from lean management to achieve sustained service delivery improvement. This workshop will present a unique opportunity to gain insights into the application of lean management in the public healthcare sector.
Honorary lecturer in Patient Safety and Improvement Science for the faculty of Emergency Medicine at UCT, Dr Heather Tuffin will also be presenting a half day workshop: An Introduction to Lean, where participants will learn basic concepts of Lean through an interactive game. Dr Tuffin is a medical doctor turned improvement scientist and works with staff in the Western Cape provincial health system to improve patient care processes, with the aim of improving health outcomes and morale in the workplace.
LIA is giving away one place on the Introduction to Lean half-day workshop with Dr Tuffin to an eHealthNews reader. To be automatically entered into the draw, readers are invited to share or retweet posts on Facebook and Twitter respectively.
For more information about the summit, including ticket prices, visit the Lean Summit Africa 2016 website. A full list of speakers can be found here and the programme here.
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