LEAN in Claims Management - Part II

LEAN - a set of ideas and an approach to make processes perform better. Designed by Toyota when they were entering the US Market, with the idea to get the most possible value out of everything they have while consuming the least amount of resources. Toyota focused on eliminating wasteful activity that does not clearly benefit the customer.

We've interviewed Guy Parsons, a founding member of Lean Enterprise Institute, on his experience in applying LEAN strategies to Claims Management, bringing you the second in our 2-part series. 

Would you explain how you go through a Lean project?

1.  Spend time identifying a business target process flow for improvement or value stream that's important to the business's goals.  Scope the project: beginning, middle, and end to identify a cross-functional, ideal mix of people to bring together to improve work flow.

2.  Create both a map of the Current State Work System to identify problems and issues in that flow, and then create a Future State Map.

3.  Build a careful and detailed action plan with the team to make these changes a reality within 90 days.  By using 90 days, we're not re-inventing IT solutions or spending capital to achieve our goals.

4.  Review the progress of the team after 90 days, reflect on the benefits and the learning.

5.  Choose the next area for improvement, while continuing to make improvements in the first.