John M. Nicholas

An Integrated Lean-Methods Approach to Hospital Facilities Redesign

Abstract Lean production methods for eliminating waste and improving processes in manufacturing are now being applied in healthcare. As the author shows, the methods are appropriate for redesigning hospital facilities. When used in an integrated manner and employing teams of mostly clinicians, the methods produce facility designs that are custom-fit to patient needs and caregiver work processes, and reduce operational costs. The author reviews lean methods and an approach for integrating them in the redesign of hospital facilities. A case example of the redesign of an emergency department shows the feasibility and benefits of the approach.

Research Methods and Reporting Practices in Organization Development: A Review and Some Guidelines

A review of 65 organizational development studies employing “hard-criteria” measures reveals a clear trend toward more rigorous methods and designs, especially the use of quasi-experimental designs and sophisticated statistics. Still, the selection of comparison groups and the duration of measurement were often inadequate, and many descriptions of techniques and dependent variables were so vague that results are uninterpretable. A number of suggestions for improving reporting of organizational development research are presented.

Evaluation Research in Organizational Change Interventions: Considerations and Some Suggestions:

This paper describes some important considerations for planning and performing evaluation research in organizational change interventions. The author suggests that the very process of planning for evaluation can improve interventions through specific emphasis on clarification of problems, program objectives, intervention procedures, and expected outcomes. Some methodological problems of evaluating organizational change interventions are reviewed, along with suggestions for how these issues might be reasonably approached. Suggested is the use of a pre-evaluation framework to aid practitioners in planning effective evaluation designs. Key considerations include involvement of organizational decision makers, development of a situation change model, and use of evaluative methods and measures that corroborate evidence of outcomes. The references and examples, drawn from the literature on evaluation research and organizational change, should be useful for practitioners and decision makers interested in evaluating planned organizational change efforts.

The portal to lean production : principles and practices for doing more with less

Portal to Lean Production Race with a Moving Finish Line Awakening to Lean Production The Portal The Organization of the Book THE JOURNEY, FIRST STEPS Beginnings Toyota Production System Quick History of TPS TPS and the Portal to Lean Production First Glimpse of a Manufacturing Cell The Indiana Plant Cellular Manufacturing Throughput and Quality Gaining Experience, Broadening the Concept Trap Cell Scheduling for Uniform Load Cell Design Applying the Cell Concept Plantwide The Revelation Linked Workcells and Subcells Implementation BUILDING UP STEAM Kanban Inventory Mess Adopting Pull Production Pull-Production Concepts Number of Kanbans Signal and Control: Methods and Issues Total Productive Maintenance Breakdown in the Trap Cell Concepts of Maintenance Management Preventive Maintenance Total Productive Maintenance Quick Changeover A Tale of Two Plants Setup Reduction Concepts and Techniques SMED Procedure Techniques for Setup Reduction Checklist Attachments and Fasteners Eliminate Adjustments Storage Carts Setup-Reduction Projects Component of a Larger System Standard Work Strange-Looking Charts Concept of Standard Work What Is Standard Work? Critical Role in Kaizen Focused Factories Early Focused-Factory Experience Focused-Factory Team Leaders A Little Knowledge Can Be... Clash of the Old and the New Focused Factory Microdesign Issues Clustering Products and Operations Focused-Factory Organization Customer-Focused Quality Listening to Your Customers Customer Complaint Statistical Variation Experimentation Awakening Road to Six Sigma Quality Assurance in Lean Production Problem-Solving Tools Statistical Process Control Nonstatistical Process Control Quality at the Source Quality Improvement and TPS SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Employee Involvement, Workplace Organization, Kaizen Employee Involvement and Workplace Organization Value Stream Mapping Main Vent Assembly Cell Supply-Chain Partnerships Learning from Our Suppliers Problems with Parts Building Bonds with a Supplier Building Bonds in the Supply Chain Supply-Chain Concept The Lean Supply Chain Partner Relationships Little Customer, Big Supplier This Can Be Difficult The Lean Enterprise Product Design Lean Product Development Process Engineering Purchasing Function Accounting and Finance Sales and Marketing Human Resources Lean Culture Transformation Organization Culture Role of Management Sustaining Momentum Transformational Leadership Mistakes Closing Thoughts APPENDIX A: Glossary

Reducing I.T. Project Management Failures: A Research Proposal

Failures rates of Information Technology (I.T.) projects remain high, even after decades of efforts to reduce them. However, most efforts to improve project success have focused on variations within the traditional project management paradigm. We argue that a root cause of high I.T. project failure rates is the traditional paradigm itself, as promulgated by, e.g., PMBOK. Discussions with an expert panel resulted in the formulation of a new paradigm described in this paper: Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL). This paper proposes empirical research to ascertain the role of the new paradigm in reducing I.T. project failure rates. The initial phase of our research, reported in this paper, resulted in a survey questionnaire and pilot data from several I.T. projects. The paper describes the research methodology for an empirical study to investigate the role of VDCL in reducing I.T. project failure rates.

Reducing I.T. Project Management Failures: Early Empirical Results

Failures rates of Information Technology (I.T.) projects remain high, even after decades of efforts to reduce them. Most efforts to improve project success have focused on variations within the traditional project management paradigm, such as advanced by the Project Management Body Of Knowledge (PMBOK). This paper reports on early empirical results into project (management) success or failure factors stemming from the traditional paradigm as well as from Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL). The early results points to several success factors stemming from the traditional project management paradigm as well as from VDCL.

A new way of thinking about IT project management practices: Early empirical results

ABSTRACT Despite decades of efforts to improve the management of Information Technology (IT) projects, failure rates remain high. This article first reviews literature about information systems success and IT project success. Most of the improvement efforts have focused on advancing variations of the traditional project management paradigm, such as embodied by the Project Management Body of Knowledge. This article describes a new way of thinking about managing IT project called Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL), and reports the results of an initial empirical exploration to identify project success factors stemming from VDCL as well as the traditional paradigm. The results are based on data collected from 16 medium-sized IT-intensive projects at eight Chicago-based organizations from six different industries. The results, although not based on a large sample, point to several project management practices associated with project success that stem from both the traditional paradigm as well as VDCL. For example, traditional practices managing stakeholders’ expectations, scope, and schedule are associated with project success, as are practices stemming from VDCL, such as managing the end-product’s architecture, business value added, and the organization change associated with systems implementation. The results of this study also suggest that further research into new ways of thinking about IT project management may be fruitful.

Chapter 1 – What Is Project Management?

The curriculum of this program was designed to teach the execution of mission-critical projects and to help students conquer the three project environments of people, processes and strategies. The 30-unit Master of Project Management is offered in a part-time evening format for working professionals. A 15-unit Graduate Certificate in Project Management is also offered and can be transferred into the degree at any time.