Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare: DMAIC Project Report Guide

Question 1

The healthcare industry is undergoing inevitable industry shifts to align with an evolving landscape and to focus on patient-centricity. Hospitals and healthcare institutions are adjusting or completely redesigning their business processes to cope with industry demands and changes resulting from major policy shifts. Lean Six Sigma has been recognised as a useful approach to improving business processes by identifying the process gaps and implementing effective improvement measures.

You are tasked to lead a Lean Six Sigma project team to identify a business process in a hospital or healthcare institution that (in your opinion) is facing a challenge and requires improvement. In selecting this process, you may source from published articles or public media to identify existing issues or challenges. Submit a report on how you would identify the process issues, analyse the problems, recommend and implement ideas to improve the process, and establish control plans to sustain the improvement using the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC approach.

This ECA focuses on the process-centric approach and qualitative analysis of the DMAIC model. Collecting extensive data and performing data analysis are not required.

Report Requirements

You must produce a report of not more than 10 pages (excluding the following: cover page, content page, and reference page) in Microsoft Word (*.docx) format, with Times New Roman font in size 12, single line spacing. You must address the following questions in order. Your analysis and report should be developed in the context of the selected organisation and its current situation. You MUST clearly list the question numbers and indicate the word count of the answers to the respective questions in the report.

Question 1a

Introduce the selected hospital or healthcare institution by providing a short write-up about its background/history and include its website or address. (Word limit: 150)

(3 marks)

Question 1b

Discuss how the selected hospital or healthcare institution’s business is impacted by recent developments and/or policy shifts. Include details like financial and operational performance, and its value/supply chain, e.g., customers, suppliers, and/or the processes or the service delivery, etc. (Word limit: 150)

(4 marks)

Question 1c

Appraise the suitability of Lean Six Sigma in improving the selected hospital or healthcare institution’s business process in today’s environment. In this discussion, you must cover the broader context and narrow it down to a particular business process that you wish to tackle. (Word limit: 200)

(5 marks)

Question 1d

Describe the role/function of the specific business process identified in Question 1(c) and the issues or challenges around it. (Word limit: 100)

(3 marks)

Question 2

Question 2a

Compose the SIPOC diagram for the specific business process identified in Question 1(c) and provide descriptions related to the development or policy shifts.

(7 marks)

Question 2b

Explain the problem statement about the issue(s) identified in Question 1(d) and examine the impact of the issue(s) on the hospital or healthcare institution’s business.

(5 marks)

Question 2c

Define the CTQ and its operational definition by analysing the VOC and the issues in the identified business process. Compare the current CTQ performance of the process with its performance prior to the year 2020. Propose the project objective.

(8 marks)

Question 3

Question 3a

Develop the “As-Is” Process Map for the identified business process which should reflect and highlight the impact of the shifts or disruptions in the process. If you are unable to work out the exact process flow (sometimes hospitals or healthcare institutions do not make this publicly available), use reasonable assumptions where necessary (include a footnote to explain your assumptions for clarity).

(5 marks)

Question 3b

Assume you have organised and conducted a brainstorming session to discuss the possible causes of the issues in the process, show the Fishbone/Cause and Effect diagram of the potential causes.

(5 marks)

Question 3c

Assume you have conducted a Gemba walk. Describe two (2) wastes and the likely root causes of each of the wastes in the identified business process. Discuss the impact of the policy or landscape shifts on the observed wastes and the likely root causes. Update the Fishbone diagram in Question 3(b) on the likely root causes.

(7 marks)

Question 3d

Recommend and describe two (2) countermeasures/improvement ideas to improve the process. Indicate whether the countermeasure is to address the root causes or remove/eliminate the wastes identified from the Gemba walk in Question 3(c). (Word limit: 200)

(4 marks)

Question 3e

Propose two (2) measures to standardise the improved process in Question 3(d).

Examine the effectiveness of the measures. (Word limit: 200)

(4 marks)

Question 3f

Develop a control plan for the improved process. You can make assumptions for the metric specification/requirement and any other quantitative figures in the control plan.

(5 marks)

Section B (25 Marks)

Answer all questions in this section.

Question 4

Your Lean Six Sigma project has successfully completed the DMAIC Control Phase Tollgate 5 review meeting. The project sponsor, being pleased and impressed with both the DMAIC approach and the results, has requested you to prepare a presentation to update the CEO on the Lean Six Sigma project. Arrange your presentation in a manner suited to the CEO.

Prepare a video recording of the presentation of at least 3 minutes but not exceeding 6 minutes. Refer to Canvas T/TG/RESIT course site > Assignments > ECA_VIDEO for the step-by-step guide on how to submit the video.

(25 marks)

Section C (10 Marks)

Answer all questions in this section.

Question 5

Prepare a set of PowerPoint presentation slides upon which the video presentation is based. Your PowerPoint deck must not exceed 15 slides. Please note that the PowerPoint must be converted to PDF before submission to Canvas.

(10 marks)