Transforming to a Quality Culture: The Henry Ford Production System.

QM 19

Richard J. Zarbo, MD, DMD*

Rita D'Angelo, MS, ASQE, SSBB

Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Henry Ford Health System 2799 West Grand Blvd. Detroit, MI 48202

Abstract

We describe the cultural transformation of the surgical pathology laboratory at Henry Ford

Hospital to one that has adopted an expectation for empowered workers to see their daily work in the

context of continually learning and making effective process improvements that are designed and

tested by the scientific method.  This has been achieved by creating an organizational and

educational framework for implementing guiding principles originally systematized as the basis of

lean manufacturing by our founder, Henry Ford at the turn of the century, and incorporating the

innovations of the Toyota Production System.   We present novel data collection techniques to

establish baseline states by which to gauge the success of changes and lessons from rapid

process improvement studies. Here, we share our experiences, lessons learned and successes to

date in the pathology-based Henry Ford Production System.