Designing for Improvement



 

Our traditional response to complex problems is to find and eliminate the human behaviors that we think are responsible for errors, and are perplexed when the error we thought we eradicated occurs again and again. We ignore the fact that 95% of process performance is attributable to the design of the work and the system in which the work resides and only 5% to the human component. The importance of creative design in the laboratory is often overlooked and its potential is underutilized. In this session we will discover how to design a work environment where error is, if not impossible, at least very difficult. Using innovative problem solving principles and techniques, we will open the door to organizational excellence by design.

Originally presented on August 12, 2014, in Salt Lake City, Utah.


Lecture Presenter

Bonnie Messinger, CPHQ, CMQ/OE (ASQ), Six Sigma Black Belt

Bonnie Messinger, CPHQ, CMQ/OE (ASQ), Six Sigma Black Belt

Process Improvement Manager, Improvement Engineering Department
ARUP Laboratories

Bonnie Messinger has worked at ARUP since its inception in 1984. She started in Specimen Processing where she supervised for five years. She joined the fledgling quality effort at ARUP in 1990 as the Quality Assurance Coordinator and became ARUP’s Quality Manager in 2003. In 2011, Ms. Messinger joined the Industrial Engineering team at ARUP as the Process Improvement Manager. Ms. Messinger is responsible for ARUP’s process improvement functions. She pursues and develops new and existing improvement systems and methods; trains and facilitates teams seeking to optimize processes and lower error rates; analyzes and presents key enterprise-wide quality indicator data; and oversees the training of ARUP’s workforce on the tools and techniques of process improvement. Ms. Messinger is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality and its local chapter, is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), is a Six Sigma Black Belt and is certified by the American Association for Quality as a Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.


Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Distinguish between quality performance and quality design.
  • Learn three approaches to quality design.
  • Understand the principles of innovative problem solving.

Sponsored by:

ARUP Laboratories