Preliminary On-Site Assessment of Care Facilities: Part 2

How to Improve Care Facilities?
Challenges Faced in the Tenth Year of Operation

Result
・Increase in the number of people that can be accommodated by 5
・Improvement of staff working conditions
・Reduction of task time to approximately one-third

This is the second part of the improvement case study for the preliminary on-site assessment of Care Facility A, now in its tenth year of operation.

In the second part, we will introduce some improvement examples of “enhancing the visual impression” and“improving the efficiency of caregiving staff’s tasks.”

Click here for the first part

**Facility’s Capacity to Accommodate**

  • Day Service: 24 seats
  • Service-Linked Housing: 14 rooms

    • Industry Details
    Care Services Business
    Country
    Japan
    Company Size
    Fewer than 50 employees
    Challenge
    Achieving profitability
    Objective
    収益改善生産性 向上コスト削減リードタイム短縮その他
    Industry
    Day Service Area: Streamlining Workflow
    Improvement Plan
  • Frequent round trips
  • Staff have to walk a lot when performing tasks
  • The supply storage is located far away
    		•

    ＜Improvement Points＞
    ・Implement 5S by categorizing items on the counter into “necessary/unnecessary” and “immediate use/not immediate use.”

    ・Reevaluate the placement of shelves for each task, or use carts instead of shelves so that when the cart is brought over, everything needed for the task is available.

    Example: tea cart, coloring cart, snack cart, word game cart, etc.

    Improve workflow to increase turnover rate
    Improvement Plan
  • Poor workflow (items are not placed according to the bathing procedure)
  • The high temperature and humidity environment place a significant physical burden on staff
  • Frequent breakdowns of the bath units
    		•

    ＜Improvement Points＞
    ・The main issue in increasing the number of users is how to improve the turnover rate for bathing.

    ・To bathe 22 people in two bathrooms from 9:00 to 12:00 (180 minutes), it requires 16 minutes per person.

    ・Increase the utilization rate of the bathtubs by external setup.

    Vending Machine & Bulletin Board
    Improvement Plan
  • A vending machine that is not used very frequently is placed at the entrance, causing an obstruction.
  • The sides of the vending machine and the doors of the storage cabinets are used as bulletin boards, which looks unappealing.
    		•

    ＜Improvement Points＞
    ・Consider replacing the vending machine with a newer, slimmer model, or reevaluate its placement.

    ・Do not post items all over the place; use the bulletin board.

    ・Clearly label the bulletin board with titles such as “Information Bulletin Board” and decide what should be posted there.

    5S for the Office」
    Improvement Plan
  • The office is cluttered
  • Unnecessary items are placed around, turning it into a storage room.
    		•

    ＜Improvement Points＞
    ・Implement 5S by categorizing items into “necessary/unnecessary” and “immediate use/not immediate use.”

    ・Reevaluate the placement of supplies according to the workflow (streamlining the workflow).


    Click here for the first part

    For inquiries about on-site assessments, please contact here



    On-site Improvement Specialist
    Ito Akihiro

    Genba Kaizen Consultant

    Akihiro Ito is active on the front line as a shop floor improvement consultant. He has improved a wide variety of large and medium-sized shop floors of over 300 companies in more than 12 countries in Japan and overseas, and has solved the problems of each shop floor every time. Based on his experience working on the production control system, he implements improvement activities in all processes of a factory such as sales, materials, production control, manufacturing, and outsourcing. In addition, he implements the improvement activities together with the people at the shop floor, make the culture of shop floor improvement rooted in the company, and realize quality improvement, productivity improvement and lead time reduction.

    Consultants from major companies
    with experience in over 40 countries will respond.
    Please feel free to contact us.

    Online/remote Assessment
    Download documents
    Contact us

    If you are in a hurry, please call us.

    +81-3-5783-3571
    （Japan time）
    Open 08:30 – 17:30
    Except for Saturday, Sunday, holidays, Year-End and New-Year holidays
    All cases
    List of cases by purpose
    生産性 向上コスト削減リードタイム短縮その他収益改善Quality improvementCost reductionProfitability improvementInventory controlLead time reductionHuman resource development5sProfitability improvementOthers
    List of cases by industry
    その他電機・電子AutomobileElectrical and electronicEnergyMetalfoodOthers

    3 reasons why we are chosen REASON

    REASON 1

    Improvement experience of
    more than 1,500 companies in 40 countries

    There must be the shop floor issues that cannot be solved by your own company alone. Improvements and reforms for manufacturing industry to survive, regardless of country or industry, need development of your human resources through practical experiences of improvement, and strengthening of your production system base.

    REASON 2

    Consulting that shop floor workers
    acknowledge our superiority and be pleased

    In conventional consulting styles, there was a distance between consultant and the shop floor because it was promoted mainly consultant and management executives. Our consultant can provide a guidance without a distance between consultant and the shop floor through the guidance based on the “seeds of improvement” in a concrete way, instead of “finding fault” like a critic.

    REASON 3

    Continuous improvement will continue
    even after the end of guidance

    While strengthening “human resource development”, we focus on the “overall flow” from design to purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, and production control, and provide guidance that matches the actual situation of your company. Continuous improvement will continue even after the end of guidance through the guidance that is acceptable to the shop floor workers.

    Consultants from major companies
    with experience in over 40 countries will respond.
    Please feel free to contact us.

    Online/remote Assessment
    Download documents
    Contact us

    If you are in a hurry, please call us.

    +81-3-5783-3571
    （Japan time）
    Open 08:30 – 17:30
    Except for Saturday, Sunday, holidays, Year-End and New-Year holidays