Friday, July 15, 2005

New series of posts-Value Stream Management

Thanks to everyone who wished this site a happy birthday or blogiversary or whatever it was. The next series of posts, probably nine in all will discuss the benefits of Value Stream Management as a paradigm for reform of this system. The series will roughly follow James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones' book Lean Thinking.

There are a few reasons that Value Stream Management (VSM) is an attractive model. The first is that the concept of "Let the customer pull value" is essentially a business-world equivalent of person-centered thinking. The second is that the paradigm defines efficiency in a way that I find much more engaging than the normal way that we discuss the idea in this field. Those of you who have known me for awhile know how pessimistic I am that our system will ever be fully funded to operate under the current structure. The real hope for a better system falls to redesign and reimagination. A third reason is that VSM promotes honesty and transparency regarding the possibility of doing things better.

A Disclosure: I am currently working with partners to develop an instrument for applying the concepts of Value Stream Management to our system. While I certainly honor objectivity, I should admit that I both have already made up my mind as to VSM's value and hope to profit from its application.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

DDS and the Regional Center system are contrary to the actual direct benefits DD residents in the State of California receive in 2005.
The "system" could easily be made better, but unless it wants to, or asks for assistance.....it will only complain that its work is too hard and it needs more money(for itself, not its clients).
Is this any way for State Govt to allow a non profit to run?
Of course not, but time marches on and I expect better and more than the system itself. Having said that.
My current two tomes I am reading that could help the system upright
itself are "Reinventing Government"(with expenditure controlled budgeting) and "Animal Farm"(where self fullfilling reinterpretation of the original message(s) justifies squirrelly interpretation of one's original intent or cause). Or you just do the right thing.
Throw in "Little Red Hen" and "Stone Soup" and we may have the true guidelines for Self Directed....or at least in bringing compassion and humanity and respect back into the lives of families having to learn Alchemy to begin to be served.
Families and professionals alike....continue to speak out against the failures in the system as well as those things that work...my son, for one, and this dad would appreciate the intent, integrity, and honest effort.

Thanks

Doug The Una said...

I love the reading list. After this set of posts, I should probably do another set based on Stone Soup, Animal Farm and maybe The Phantom Tollbooth.

Meanwhile, please bear with this set. I think VSM really will speak to a lot of the issues you bring up here and have brought up in previous comments. It's all about eliminating waste, especially any and every effort, resource or policy that doesn't stream value to the client. If the system used this model, regional centers, DDS and agencies would look a lot different.