Henry Ford Production System Pathology Lab Tour
June 26th, 2008

IIE Greater Detroit Chapter members were invited to participate in a Henry Ford Production System Pathology Lab Tour on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Healthcare professionals from the University of Michigan Health System, Crittenton and Beaumont Hospitals were among the enthusiastic participants.

Henry Ford operates the 15th largest hospital-based laboratory in the United States. Each year, they process and analyze more than 6.5 million specimens, labs and tests that help their physicians diagnose and treat patients. Henry Ford's goal is to revolutionize the culture, practice and quality of current laboratory services by adopting its founder's continual attentiveness to wasteful practices in our environment and innovating more efficient processes that focus on the needs of the patient.

Behind the scenes access allowed participants to see how lean principles have been intensively incorporated into the pathology lab culture. The tour included access to a "lean team" report meeting where various groups comprised of all levels of employees gave presentations on their required continuous improvement initiatives.

The tour concluded with an extensive Q & A session which provided an opportunity to exchange best practices for continuous improvement and the challenges and rewards of lean culture change.

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The IIE Detroit Chapter #047 has 270 members in the greater Detroit metropolitan area. See our website at http://www.iiedetroit.org/.

You may contact the following local Greater Detroit IIE Chapter Officers for additional info:

Gary Altman, President, (810) 278-5708, Crittenton Hospital, president@iiedetroit.org

Dr. Ahad Ali, VP - Public Relations, (248) 204-2531, Lawrence Tech, aali@ltu.edu

Dr. Jayant Trewn, VP-Newsletter, (248) 273-3617, Beaumont Hospitals, jtrewn@beaumonthospitals.com