Program

10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Sessions

M01 – Go for the Big Wins: Move Beyond Tactical Quality to Customer Experience
Presenter: John Goodman, TARP
Focus Area: Increasing Organizational Focus on Service Quality
Description: The top-line payoff of better quality is 10 to 20 times the cost-savings implications. Further, much of quality improvement must take place in design, sales, and marketing rather than in the plant. Mr. Goodman will share his latest research on factors—like building a persuasive business case for the CFO—that lead to success in getting quality issues resolved, and suggest that quality professionals’ success will be increased significantly when they start focusing on building an end-to-end voice of the customer process and ideally become the chief customer officer. He will build on his article in the February 2012 issue of Quality Progress that cites companies like Boeing and Pepsi Cola that have pursued this strategy. Case studies from technology, medical care, CPG, nonprofits, and financial services will be presented.

M02 – There’s a Persona in the House of Quality
Presenter: Kathryn Zavaleta, Mayo Clinic
Focus Area: Case Studies in Service Quality Improvement
Description: Understanding the Voice of the Customer represents a fundamental, critical step toward service excellence. This presentation explores the role of qualitative methods in understanding customer demands and characteristics. Using a case study, the presenter will outline how user-centered research brought new understandings of customer requirements and new possibilities for increasing the organization’s focus on service quality.

Service excellence for patients coping with the burden of chronic disease requires the creation of systems and processes that support quality of life—not add to the patient’s burdens. In this project targeting chronic kidney disease, the design research approach emphasized direct observation. The resulting portrait of each “persona” used storytelling to go beyond the statistics on demographics, usage, and clinical trajectories. Each “persona” represented the influencers, challenges, and perspectives of patients. They provided a way to communicate customer requirements to process operators and improvement teams in a new way. This approach proved to be instrumental in creating a vision for change. The fictionalized stories resonated with caregivers and connected with their own observations. Additionally, the stories allowed staff to see current processes in a different way, and to also envision a different way going forward. As a result, the portraits have become a needed bridge to defining quality characteristics and an integral part of quality planning.

This presentation will describe the design and quality methods used to ensure that service redesign remained centered on the customer. The presenter will focus on ways that the methodology could be integrated in the practitioner’s quality toolbox.

Presenter Bio: Kathryn Zavaleta’s experience includes management responsibility for healthcare regulatory compliance, quality training programs, service excellence, balanced scorecard design, and pay-for-performance initiatives. She is a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, holds ASQ certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) and CMQ/OE, and has served four terms as an examiner for the Illinois state quality award.

M03 – Tackling Internal Customer Issues Using Senge’s 5 Disciplines
Presenter: Scott Rutherford, U.S. Navy Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Focus Area: Making Government Service Great
Description: An important element of service quality is behavior. Most of the current QA toolset is long on technical aspects and short on reinforcing actions to achieve the appropriate behavior, especially as they relate to internal customer satisfaction. Norfolk Naval Shipyard has been a big proponent of change management as it relates to process. However, it is change in the work environment, specifically how a person interacts in that environment, that drives sustainment success. Using concepts from Senge’s Fifth Discipline, learn how the shipyard took the journey to change behavior and improve productivity and internal customer satisfaction.

Presenter Bio: Scott Rutherford is a U.S. Navy-recognized Master Black Belt working in a QA organization that employs more than 500 people at the oldest U.S. Navy shipyard in the United States. Scott has held multiple volunteer positions within ASQ, and is currently serving on the Six Sigma Forum steering committee and the Administrative Council for the ASQ Learning Institute. Scott is a CQE, CQA, CQM/OE, and CSSBB.

M04 – Accelerating Customer Experience Improvements: Engagement and Change Acceptance
Presenters: Eric Michrowski and Alex Zabradi, TELUS
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: It seems as though social media has made inroads into every discipline and industry, and operational excellence is no exception. Companies are finding the real-time knowledge transfer that social media encourages falls nicely in line with process excellence principles, especially for service-based organizations with a national footprint.

Unlike the manufacturing sector, where process improvement initiatives can be localized to the shop floor, national service-based organizations typically struggle to connect key players to facilitate knowledge transfer, engagement, and acceptance of change initiatives. The presentation will showcase how TELUS has been leveraging social media in a process improvement context to create a new medium that encourages collaboration, communication, learning, and knowledge management. Explore how social media can provide instant transfer of information and communication of ideas across geographical distances, with considerations to the limitations and benefits of social media as a tool in the process improvement space.

Additionally, the presentation will highlight potential opportunities that social media could present to the process improvement practitioner, including engaging team members in Kaizen events they couldn’t normally participate in due to shifts (time barriers) or geographical spread (space barriers), communicating the work of a Kaizen team in real time to the organization, creating a forum to pilot process changes with a broader audience, sharing knowledge gained through solving process challenges, and gaining a deeper understanding of potential root causes

Presenter Bios: Eric Michrowski is a Master Black Belt and deployment leader with 15 years of experience in operational excellence spanning four sectors, including the leadership of a highly successful business turnaround. The leader of the award-winning TELUS Process Improvement CoE, Eric was recognized as Deployment Leader of the Year and made presentations to over 2,000 leaders last year.

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Sessions

M05 – Global Business Performance Process Excellence: The Public vs. the Private Sector—Who Wins? 
Presenters: Dale Weeks, Global Leadership and Benchmarking Associates (GLBA)
Focus Area: Increasing Organizational Focus on Service Quality
Description: Can government compete directly with any world-class organization, public or private? This one-hour conference session will highlight the business process management (BPM) performance excellence adventures of selected government BPM success stories and compare their performance with other global role models in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and beyond. 
In summary, the three major elements included in this session are:
• Proven "success story" evidence that a true public sector BPM transformation is actually under way today in government, yielding extraordinary business results on a global scale.
• Comparison data that demonstrates where, how, and why government is exceeding the "normal" expectations of the international private sector. 
• A business case of how to inspire all levels of government toward a stretch goal of building a systematic benchmarking process for actually reaching the top five or 10 percent of the "most admired" BPM organizations on the planet. Come listen to where this reality is happening now! 

Presenter Bios: Weeks is president of Global Leadership and Benchmarking Associates (GLBA), a consulting firm focused on delivering performance excellence and global benchmarking management services to both the public and private sectors. From 2000-2011, Weeks was senior executive officer and deputy executive director for the Florida Department of Revenue. His primary role was serving as the agency’s chief business process and benchmarking leadership officer, with an oversight responsibility for integrating all programs, within the context of the internationally proven Baldrige Business Performance Excellence management framework.

M06 – Data-Based Decision-Making in Service Industries
Presenter: Lou Johnson, Minitab Inc.
Focus Area: Data-Based Decision Making in Service Industries
Description: Analysis of historical data can be critical to the successful completion of Lean Six Sigma projects. But large customer or survey datasets present their own unique set of analysis challenges: verification, multiple correlations, and data manipulation, among many others. Participants will learn the keys to applying graphical and regression analysis of historical data to making good business decisions in service industries. Banking, call center, hospital, and food service data from a variety of case studies will be used to demonstrate techniques such as time series analysis, multiple regression, logistic regression, stratification, Pareto analysis, and more.

Presenter Bio: Six Sigma Master Black Belt Lou Johnson is currently a senior technical trainer and mentor with Minitab, Inc. Lou’s instruction leverages 27 years of experience in process improvement and Six Sigma with Corning, Inc. and Minitab, Inc., coaching teams to reduce costs and improve process efficiency. He has also consulted and trained with dozens of companies from Arrow to Xerox. Lou is a frequent presenter at the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement, the Lean and Six Sigma conference, and Fall Technical Conferences as well as regional ASQ meetings across the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in statistics from Penn State University. Lou received his Black Belt certification from ASQ.

M07 – Turning the Tide: Quality Translations at the FBI
Presenter: May Kamalick, FBI
Focus Area: Making Government Service Great
Description: How can investigators at the FBI know whether a translation of a foreign language communication is accurate and complete? Until 2001, the FBI had excellent translators who were tested and well vetted, but there was no formal quality program to ensure the accuracy and integrity of translations. After 2001, the importance of communications in foreign languages and the accuracy of their translations became evident. In 2004, the FBI created and implemented a quality program which has since served as a model for other agencies. This program is based on the principle of using quality as a tool (rather than an end) to ensure success for the customer. However, as in other newly launched quality programs, there was initial pushback and opposition: the program won’t work; enforcing quality would risk too much; failure is sure to be the result. Despite some expected negativity (anticipated when one aims to do something better) and thanks to determined management, innovative techniques, and application of quality principles, the quality program at the FBI succeeded. Producing a quality translation may add a small fraction to the total time spent on the job, but the results are greater accomplishments and better service.

This presentation will outline the history of the quality program at the FBI, the steps taken to ensure its success, the methods utilized to ensure accuracy of translations, and the metrics collected for continued improvement. This service adds value to the customers’ work of ensuring the security and freedom of the United States and its citizens.

Presenter Bio: May Kamalick heads the Language Quality and Standards Unit at the FBI. The unit handles the quality assurance program for the Language Services Section. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in linguistics and education. Her college-level teaching and corporate training careers on two continents culminated in her work with the Bureau.

M08 – Hybrid Method of Customer-Focused Service Quality Improvement
Presenters: Masahiro Ito, Fontainebleau Florida Hotel, LLC
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: An innovative approach developed by the Fountainbleau Florida Hotel combines correlation coefficient and the Kano model, with a hint of Pareto analysis for highly effective understanding of Voice Of the Customer, which determines key satisfaction drivers out of methodically and comprehensively deconstructed data of customer expectations. This approach also enables analysis results to be expeditiously and successfully turned into actionable and measurable service quality improvement initiatives that ensure immediate execution and tangible results.

Presenter Bio: Masahrio Ito, an active member of ASQ, has been hotel manager and director of quality operations at Fontainebleau Miami Beach for more than three years. He has 16 years of tenure in the hotel industry—13 of which with luxury brands (including the Malcolm Baldrige-awarded Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company), and has been in a leadership role for 11 of those years in leadership roles.

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Sessions

M09 – Discovering Innovation
Presenter: Brad Jensen
Focus Area: Increasing Organizational Focus on Service Quality
Description: The most critical resources in a service organization are the men and women that deal directly with customers. Often, they are also the most neglected resource in our organizations because they are usually first-level employees. In efforts to find and create innovation in the workplace, presenter Brad Jensen has found no greater resource than the lowest-paid workers. While senior managers are racking their brains to find a better way to serve the customers, clerks, tellers and salesmen already know what the customers want. Their heads are full of ideas of how to improve service and process flow since they deal with it every day. What every service organization needs is a good way to extract those ideas.

This presentation is about developing simple yet effective ways of getting ideas and innovations from employees. The first step in building a successful innovation or idea program is to understand why people need to participate in the creative process of a business. The second step is building an effective system based on responsibility, accountability, speed, simplicity, marketing, and rewards. By implementing these principles, Jensen took a company’s stagnant suggestion program and increased the idea submission rate by 1,000 percent in 12 months. The company savings that were generated from these suggestions increased from $30,000 per year to over $1.5 million. Saving money was great, but the most enduring rewards were the increased motivation of employees and the enhanced relationships with customers.

Presenter Bio: Management consultant Brad Jensen began his career as a Six Sigma practitioner and process improvement specialist 20 years ago as a chief of manpower and quality in the United States Air Force. He has led studies to improve a wide variety of organizations including projects to improve flight-line activity, pharmacy workflow, security, and logistics and wartime deployment. Brad taught leadership and management at Brigham Young University and University of California–Berkeley.

M10 – Overview of Lean for Service
Presenter: Liz Keim, Integrated Quality Resources, LLC
Focus Area: Case Studies in Service Quality Improvement
Description: This presentation will provide an overview of lean and how it can be applied to any service process.

Presenter Bio: Liz is the managing partner of Integrated Quality Resources, and spent years at IBM and GE. She works with clients using lean, Six Sigma, and Baldrige methodologies. Liz is Past Chair of ASQ, an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and an Academician in the International Academy for Quality.

M11 – Listening to the Voice of the Citizen – Making Government Work Better
Presenter: Cody Dodd, Institute for Citizen-Centered Service
Focus Area: Making Government Service Great
Description: Over the last decade, governments at all levels in Canada have introduced and deployed the core elements of service quality with great success. Citizen satisfaction ratings have increased by over 12 percent. Employee engagement has increased, and trust and confidence has also improved. Central to this approach has been the adoption of a philosophy of citizen-centered service or customer focus. This presentation will outline the service quality journey that over 20 federal, provincial, and municipal governments have been on. Particular focus will be placed on the overall approach, the role, and importance of the public sector service value chain, which links the core elements of service quality (customer focus, employee engagement, service delivery excellence, trust, and confidence). In each area, the presentation will focus on key tools and techniques (strategy, governance, measurement, training, and change management) and a case study illustrating a service improvement.

Presenter Bio: Cody holds a master’s in research and evaluation from the University of Toronto. As a leading member of the ICCS research team, Cody has been actively involved in the design and implementation of leading research projects in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East, including Citizens First, the Common Measurements Tool, and Taking Care of Business.

M12 – Six Sigma for Service – 20th vs. 21st Century
Presenter: Jim Duarte, SAS Institute Inc.
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: Six Sigma tools have made little progress since the early days of total quality. Teams still depend on brainstorming, small projects, data collected on a limited basis, and software that lives on a PC. In the era of big data, predictive modeling, high-performance computing, and forecasting, the use of more technology can take Six Sigma into the 21st century. This presentation will show comparisons of traditional Six Sigma methods to more advanced analytics to increase the speed and accuracy of decision-making and problem-solving. Tool examples will include the comparison of the fishbone diagram to predictive modeling, process flow/value stream maps to discrete event simulation, and the place that forecasting takes in the Analysis phase of DMAIC. More complex processes and problems need an expanded tool set of analytical methods. Simulation shows what a redesign will look like to prepare for change. Allowing members of the organization to “what if” the process for proposed changes before having them dictated is the wave of the future. Implementation of new, more efficient processes has greater success when changes are readily accepted. Technology and advanced analytics fit well into the DMAIC process by including new tools. Project examples will include load forecasting for utilities, credit scoring for reducing bad debt, and call center optimization.

Presenter Bio: Jim Duarte served as corporate director at Anheuser-Busch, Reynolds Metals, and Vermeer Manufacturing. Jim has advanced degrees in statistics, is a Fellow of ASQ, and certified as a Quality Engineer and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He taught as an ad hoc professor in statistics and quality at several universities.

10:45 p.m. – 11:45 p.m. Sessions

T01 – How Good Is Our Score? Setting the Bar for Measures of Customer-Perceived Service Quality
Presenter: Randall Brandt, Maritz Research
Focus Area: Increasing Organizational Focus on Service Quality
Description: Where and how high should managers set the bar for measures of customer-perceived service quality? A number of approaches may be used to address this question, but one of the most common is benchmarking. Normative data, scores obtained for key competitors and/or best-in-class organizations, or other selected "benchmarks" furnish the basis for evaluating a firm’s current service quality score, as well as setting goals and targets for such scores going forward.

The popularity of benchmarking is indisputable. However, all benchmark-based targets suffer from an important limitation: Even if an organization achieves or exceeds the benchmark, there is no guarantee that this level of service quality will lead to desired business results since the link between service quality and customer behavior has not been taken into account.

To address this problem, some companies prefer using linkage analysis as a basis for setting targets. They conduct analyses to establish the strength and form of the relationship between service quality metrics and customer behavior (e.g., actual customer retention or repeat purchasing). Once this relationship has been established, the organization sets the target for service quality at the level associated with the desired customer behavior.

How do benchmark-based targets compare to linkage-based targets? Are they different? If so, do the differences really matter?

In this session, Randall Brandt will share results of recent research designed to answer these questions. After providing a brief overview of the data and analytical methods used in this research, he will highlight the key similarities and differences between benchmark-based and linkage-based targets. Implications and recommendations regarding how your organization should use both approaches subsequently will be discussed.

Presenter Bio: Randall Brandt is the vice president of customer experience and loyalty at Maritz Research. He has assisted more than 300 manufacturing and service firms in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America in designing and implementing approaches to measuring/managing customer experience and loyalty, as well as linking the voice of the customer to business processes and results.

A certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Randall was a member of the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1993 to 1995, and from 1999 to 2000. He has made over 200 presentations at national and international conferences since 1988, and has authored articles appearing in a variety of academic and professional publications.

Randall holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and holds a doctorate from Michigan State University. He currently is a member of ASQ, the American Marketing Association, the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

T02 – Lean Approach: Value Stream Maps Used to Reduce Customer Waiting Time
Presenter: Tomas Velasco, Southern Illinois University, College of Engineering
Focus Area: Case Studies in Service Quality Improvement
Description: Lean techniques are tools that reduce waste in the process and generate value for the end-consumer. Initially, the concepts of lean thinking started in the manufacturing industry, but with the advantages they offer in terms of value-creation for the customer, defect reduction, and increase of profits, it has been recognized as an important tool across a wide spectrum of industries.

Although the service industry has started using these techniques, there is very little work published on how to apply these techniques to sectors of this industry in general. In this presentation, a structure for applying lean thinking to reduce customer waiting time is introduced. The configuration depicts a systematic procedure for identifying metrics and value streams. Although the outline was developed specifically for the healthcare industry, it can be applied to other sectors of the service industry in general.

A case study is also presented on how to apply this structure. Value stream mapping was conducted at a clinic to identify areas of improvement. The components of the developed outline were used to define a future state for the process based on input from stakeholders, nurses, physicians, and patients (final customers). The study identified factors that influence the success of implementation of lean techniques in this customer-oriented service.

Presenter Bio: Thomas Velasco received a professional degree in industrial engineering from Xavier University in 1984. He then went onto Pittsburgh State University, where he received both his master’s degree in manufacturing in 1985 and his MBA in management in 1987. Thomas also holds a doctorate in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas, which he received in 1991. He is currently the director of the graduate program in manufacturing at the College of Engineering at Southern Illinois University. He is also an associate professor at several European universities, a consultant to many companies, and has published various articles in scientific journals. Thomas holds CSSBB and CQE from ASQ certifications.

T03 – Lessons Learned from the Difficult Road To Achieving World Class Service on CDC-INFO
Presenters: : JP Chalarca and JR Kenlin, General Dynamics Information Technology—Health and Civilian Solutions Division
Focus Area: Making Government Service Great
Description: : CDC-INFO is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Contact Center. It is a single source for accurate, timely, consistent, and science-based information on a wide variety of disease prevention and health promotion topics. Representatives are available to answer questions via phone and email in English and Spanish. During the program’s first four years, as it integrated 40 hotlines, clearinghouses, and automated response systems into one centralized technical infrastructure and contact center, it saw a substantial drop in quality and customer satisfaction.

However, in the past three years, quality scores increased from 73 percent to 96 percent, while overall customer satisfaction scores increased from 85 percent to 93 percent. Additionally, CDC-INFO has been able to achieve superior quality scores (>90%) for 19 consecutive months, and CSAT results have been over 90 percent for 16 consecutive months. This ISO 9001-registered program also won the Government Services Administration Annual Citizen Service Award in 2009.

This presentation will focus on the rapid turnaround achieved starting in 2009 with the use of solid quality management principals and tools to drive improvements. Learn about the program’s efforts to achieve world-class service by providing insight into the challenges that improvement professionals will face and some ways they can overcome them. Discover the lessons learned and paradigm shifts encountered by the team, and the principals needed for excellent service quality by two speakers who have lived the journey.

Presenter Bios: JP Chalarca has been CDC-INFO’s quality manager for the past three years, responsible for helping maintain the program’s high quality and customer satisfaction scores. He is a graduate of Pfeiffer University’s Master of Organizational Change and Leadership Program. JP is also a Toastmasters’ certified speaker.

JR Kenlin, director of quality for the Health Sector at GDIT, oversees the quality management program for more than 5,500 employees across 15 sites. He has led ISO 9001, ISO 20000, CMMI and Six Sigma initiatives. He is a graduate of the M.B.A. Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

T04 – Adaptive Action: Creating an Iterative Service Quality Process
Presenter: Mallary Tytel, Healthy Workplaces
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: Sometimes the simplest methods get the most useful answers. This is the case for the Adaptive Action Cycle (AAC). Emerging from the field of Human Systems Dynamics, AAC is a process that asks three simple questions: what?, so what?, and now what? These questions assist managers and evaluators in capturing good information, recognizing patterns, and allowing them to think about service quality in a different way.

• What: During this phase, collect data to identify and clarify the issues you face.
• So What?: During this phase, analyze and sort data so that patterns emerge and you are able to make meaning of what you see.
• Now What?: During this final phase, take a breath and decide what action to take.

In similar fashion, the concept and use of lessons learned speaks to that knowledge that comes from the implementation and evaluation of a program, project, or process. This knowledge is gained empirically rather than by expertise, identifying and highlighting the incremental, innovative, and measurable improvements for the organization. The true value and eventual payoff in this process comes in transforming lessons learned into lessons applied. In other words, the Now What? phase sets the stage for your next What? question.

This highly interactive presentation will use a multi-tiered, iterative process of observation, decision-making, and action. Participants will see and practice this innovative adaptive approach in order to maximize learning and create change and opportunities for enhancing quality.

Presenter Bio: Mallary Tytel is president of Healthy Workplaces, a national consultancy focusing on human systems dynamics, coaching, corporate culture, and sustainability. Frequently quoted in the media, she is the author of two books, a regular contributor to BusinessWeek.com, and a volunteer mentor to women entrepreneurs.

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Sessions

T05 – Strategy and Implementation Tips for Rapid Improvement of Your QMS
Presenter: Edward M. West, DynCorp International, Global Logistics & Development Solutions Division
Focus Area: Increasing Organizational Focus on Service Quality
Description: Presenter Edward West was asked by his company’s senior leadership to take over Quality Management within an international maintenance and logistics support program to achieve rapid QMS improvement and enhance the program’s ISO 9001:2008 certified quality system.

This presentation highlights indicators of increasing risk into an organization’s quality program. While illuminating these risks, Mr. West will discuss "Management by Metrics" and other improvement techniques that can yield rapid process improvement and quality-culture shift within an organization. Specifically, some of the key strategies to be covered include: Quality-isms, Speaking the Same Language?;  Achieving Stakeholder Buy-in; Workforce Awareness and Energy Throughout Transformation; and Validating Change – Communicating Improvement at all Levels, ROE for Corrective Action Working Groups  and the Value of Praise.  Mr. West’s experience in various aspects of business provides for a balanced perspective on how to enhance Quality throughout an organization.

Presenter Bio: Mr. West has been working in government services industry for over a decade. He has filled management roles in supply chain, operations management, proposal development, strategic planning, and most recently quality management. He is an IRCA registered Lead Auditor for ISO 9001:2008, holds a Project Management Professional certification,  and is a Certified Property Professional Administrator for Government Contracts.

T06 – Increasing Discharge Satisfaction with Perfecting Patient Care Quality Improvement Methods
Presenters: Bruce Block and Katherine Brewer, Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative
Focus Area: Case Studies in Service Quality Improvement
Description: The healthcare industry is in the midst of drastic change as a result of quality and resource shortfalls. Through the Affordable Care Act of 2010, reimbursements and incentives are shifting to not only reduce cost, but put quality care and service at the center of practice. In order for organizations to succeed in the changing environment, they will need to place a much higher priority on the needs of the patients. The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative’s Perfecting Patient Care^sm (PPC) method, rooted in lean concepts, makes the patient/customer perspective the focus of improvement efforts and supports the need to create a culture that embraces continuous quality improvement.

This session will teach a high-level overview of how PPC methods can create a customer-focused, quality organization by utilizing input from front-line staff, identifying customer needs, measuring improvement, and embracing positive change. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with the presenters on how PPC can be applied to their own work, regardless of industry. As an example, attendees will learn how a partnership between a hospital unit and a primary care office was able to move discharge satisfaction scores from the 11th percentile to the 48th percentile in a short time by establishing a team, while at the same time increasing staff satisfaction scores and patient understanding of how to take medications.

Presenter Bios: Bruce Block is Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative’s chief medical informatics officer, supporting the implementation of EHRs and quality improvement in over 700 medical practices.

Katherine Brewer is a quality improvement specialist with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, focusing on the Safety Net Medical Home initiative and training organizations and their staff in perfecting patient care methodology.

T07 – Maintaining and Ensuring Effective Communications During a Major Transition
Presenters: Dawn Bailey and Mary Eastman, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
Focus Area: Making Government Service Great
Description: In FY2011, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program was asked by the federal government to explore alternate funding opportunities. However, due to the turbulent nature of politics, Congress unexpectedly voted to remove all funding before alternate funding could be established. The program’s foundation stepped in to help with operating expenses; however, the news had already broke and the rumor mill was swirling that the program was ending. The larger Baldrige community and the thousands of potential applicants for the national and Baldrige-based programs suddenly had a need for not only news but reassurances about the state of Baldrige. Three staff members assigned to communications turned to social media to help communicate with the diverse community around the globe, including international award programs. Using the Criteria for Performance Excellence, they sought voice of the customer information using LinkedIn, Twitter, and the Baldrige blog. The program’s volunteer workforce, examiners, and special envoys (called diplomats) were leveraged and asked to help share and spread information across social media, at conferences, and through networking. Additional channels for sharing news were email listservs and a website with a special transition page. Using the criteria as a guide, the Baldrige program office and award process were changed for 2012 to further strengthen the program, as well as its newly confirmed Enterprise partners, and to create taskforces for agility, streamlining, and alignment. The program created tools to track progress and ensure its messages were targeted, timely, and effective, and it tracked metrics to measure progress.

Presenter Bios: As a writer/editor for the Baldrige for 10 years, Dawn Bailey has produced the Criteria for Performance Excellence and created case studies and other training material. She represented the program in presentations at the VA, as well as during consensus and site visits. An advanced Toastmaster, Dawn has held positions at both publishing departments and various newspapers.

Mary Eastman has worked for the Baldrige Program for 13 years as webmaster, usability specialist, award process consensus and site visit monitor, and online scorebook technical representative. Prior to Baldrige, she held positions at the U.S. EPA Office of Water and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

T08 – Lean Done Right: Achieve and Maintain Reform in Your Healthcare Organization
Presenter: Thomas Zidel, Lean Hospitals, LLC
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: Healthcare organizations cannot afford to waste time, money, or resources on an improper lean implementation. They need to create a culture of continuous improvement, not a regime of tools that address problem areas but have short-lived results. This presentation introduces a model that provides a roadmap for launching a transformative and sustainable lean initiative. The lean implementation model focuses on strategically directed action, designed to develop a lean organizational culture, and enhance the care delivery system.

The model simultaneously implements two distinct paths that lead to the common objective of creating a lean enterprise. These two paths originate with the organization’s strategic plan and cascade toward organizational transformation via a quality culture and an enhanced care delivery system. The culture-creating path engenders a learning-/action-taking organization in which disclosure of problems, continuous improvement, and empowerment become standard operating procedure. The system-creating path provides strategic direction for lean implementation and focuses on creating flow through the strategically identified value streams. This path eliminates barriers, reduces inventory, and levels the identified process. These interdependent paths are equally critical to creating a lean enterprise. An attempt to execute one while disregarding the other will not produce the desired outcome. This point cannot be overemphasized.

Presenter Bio: Tom Zidel is president of Lean Hospitals, a consulting company that provides consulting, facilitation, and training to healthcare organizations. He is the author of the best-selling book A Lean Guide to Transforming Healthcare, How to Implement Lean Principles in Hospitals, Medical Offices, Clinics and Other Healthcare Organizations and Lean Done Right: Achieve and Maintain Reform in Your Healthcare Organization.

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Session

Minitab Data Analysis Application Workshop
Presenter: Lou Johnson, Joel Smith, and Brad Smith, Minitab Inc.
Focus Area: Hot Topics in Service Quality
Description: Minitab will present a series of mini-workshops by their technical trainers. Topics will vary by audience interest, i.e., what will be discussed will depend on who comes). Available beginner topics include graphical analysis, building a value stream map for lean analysis, and laney charts application in service quality. Intermediate topics include multifactor analysis vs. one factor at a time analysis, assistant menu navigation for basic statistics, and T&G rare event charts application in healthcare. Limited time will also be afforded for discussion of any data or analysis issues brought to the session on a one-on-one basis.