HCA 675 Discuss the concept of “waste” from the Deming perspective

Discuss the concept of “waste” from the Deming perspective. How do you think it could apply to hospitals and other health care entities?

Not long ago I came across a wonderful quote from Peter Drucker, probably our most noted management author. He stated “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Doing what should not be done at all is another definition of “waste”.

W. Edwards Deming, the father of continuous quality improvement or TQM, defined waste as any effort, expense, step in a process that does not add value to the product from the point of view of the customer. He stated that he had never found less than 20% waste in any process he encountered. When I read that, my first thought was “Wow, that seems high”. However, over the years, our experience with waste was even greater, averaging as much as 30-50%.

Waste is rework, it is duplication, it is poor quality, it is waiting for a decision or result. It is a primary cause of lost revenues, high costs, dissatisfied customers and frustrated employees.

Increasingly, our clients have been looking to root out waste in their systems and find innovative new ways to deliver a consistent, better end result. So how do they find it and get rid of it?

identifying_waste_blog.pngThe number one key to root out waste is to ask those doing the work to identify the waste, and to design the system that eliminates it. You may question, “Why would employees blow the whistle on themselves, pointing out that they are not producing optimally?”. Well, because they are usually not the architects of the system, and the system or process slows them down considerably. Therefore, they aren’t able to win in the current process. So, in essence, they are not blowing the whistle on themselves, they are blowing the whistle on the system management defined for them.

HCA 675 Discuss the concept of “waste” from the Deming perspective

Asking isn’t enough, however. You must also give employees the freedom and the tools to fix the process and redesign it as friction-free. They truly can do it. Ask them to implement their changes and improvements, they can also do that. Ask them to define innovations that go beyond simply eliminating waste, done.

Proceed with Caution

Essential to this approach is that the employees must feel safe to do the work. If you ask them to find and eliminate the waste, but they sense that it will lead to them losing their job, their survival needs will prevail and waste will remain. Show them that no waste can mean not just greater productivity, but also prosperity for themselves, and they will root it out when given the tools to do so. And, they actually love the journey because the basis of morale is productivity, and waste gets in the way.

Another word of caution, the waste may well be in the decision making or lack thereof of management. When you give employees the license to tell you what is wrong in the system, you must be prepared to respect and then act on what they tell you, even if it is admitting you’re your leadership is a stumbling block. Leadership’s lack of support has been the number reason for change efforts failing in our experience.

What’s it worth?
What would it be worth to you and your organization to be able to produce the results you have now with 30-50% less resources? Or, to be able to increase output 30-50% without increasing cost?

If the answer seems obvious, why don’t more organizations invest in process improvement? Multiple contributors. Among them: they don’t know how, they have tried and failed (as many as two thirds of these efforts fail nationally), they don’t want to invest the time or money, they don’t want to confront that the system they have designed isn’t optimal.

But it has been our experience that the investment in process improvement, if done correctly, is the highest leverage investment an organization can make in performance improvement. If you want to learn more about how to do it right, view our library article on the Keys to Implementing Change or contact us for a free consultation.

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Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

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Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource