No No NO-This is NOT Operational Excellence
Once again the general business press, writing about UC San Francisco, really has this all wrong. This is not Lean Thinking; it is not operational excellence; it is not “transformation.” It is misguided, misleading and, pure and simple, misinformation. And it is undoubtedly dangerous for the credibility and passion of true operational excellence and Lean leaders and companies world-wide. Why do they write this stuff?
The first three paragraphs of this article appearing in today’s San Francisco Business Times caught my attention because of how seriously inappropriate it is to “dub” any initiative which will result in the elimination of 538 people as an operational excellence plan. Who did the “dubbing?”
UC San Francisco, which faces a daunting budget deficit in this and coming years, is envisioning a restructuring that could slash up to 538 jobs over the next three years.
The game plan, dubbed “Operational Excellence,” could eliminate up to 35 central administration positions, up to 225 jobs in IT, 100 in human resources, 95 in finance and 83 in research administration, for a total of up to 538, according to a report sent to UCSF’s senior management in early April.
The proposed three-year plan aims to re-engineer internal organizations and processes, “transform” the IT department, integrate “service teams” in HR, finance and research administration, and create or save additional revenue through efficiency. Read more: Restructuring at UC San Francisco could chop 538 jobs – San Francisco Business Times:
(Note: I’m not an SF Business Times subscriber so I asked a Bay Area colleague to read me the rest of the story this morning; it didn’t get any better).
Why do some today still persist in equating business and operational improvement efforts with personnel cuts? In a truly operationally excellent environment it’s all about continuous improvement and respect for people. This way of thinking is just, as my Lean colleague Mark Graban puts it, L.A.M.E thinking! We saw some of the same previously when the Wall Street Journal published a front page story about Lean apparently gone wrong at Starbucks. Why won’t this misguided thinking just die?
In his report of March 24, 2010, An Update on UCSF 2011: A Focus on Operational Excellence, UC San Francisco Chief Business Officer John Plotts sets a much clearer and more accurate tone regarding the true meaning of improvement efforts:
It is important to note that while the challenges in front of us demand immediate attention, it is in the University’s best interest to view these challenges as an opportunity to commit to a new way of doing business that encourages the continual examination of what we do and to ask, “Why do we do this? Is there a better way?”
By dedicating ourselves to continual improvement – this year and in the years to come – we can be sure that UCSF is well run and that our resources are supporting our top priorities: patients and health, discovery and education. Committing to excellence in all we do will allow UCSF to be the best university we can make it.
Bravo, Mr. Plotts, for being a Lean Thinker, And that’s the way I see it. Adam Zak
