Thanks to our four sponsoring companies, The 6^thCHC took place in Tokyo for the first time.
Over the 2 days, concrete examples of initiatives at AIH and Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) were presented and actively discussed.
Overall 114 people participated. CEO, Gary Kaplan, and Transformation Sensei, Ms. Chika Lambert, from VMMC gave lectures on topics including the creation of an organizational structure to incorporate Kaizen, the expected role of leaders, VMMC’s aims for the future direction of Kaizen (from “Point Kaizen” to “Line Kaizen”, further to “Plant Kaizen”), visualizing tasks and the importance of a consistent understanding of the current situation.
We witnessed the organizational power of VMMC which continually evolves every year. Additionally, new approaches were introduced in the form of an explanation of “U shaped –Cells” incorporated into the design of a new ward, and a method to relieve medical staff from the burden of logistic costs.
Chairman Aso from Aso Corporation and staff of AIH introduced concrete examples of Kaizen. Chairman Aso gave a strong message that AIH has to promote more TQM activities and team medicine based on his hope to make Japanese healthcare better and to improve employee satisfaction.
The most influential report was “Lean Workcell in Nursing of AIH - Seeking a working environment that is pleasant to work in - ” presented by vice president and nursing director of AIH, Ms. Moriyama on November 10th. She talked about the installation of a Nursing Service Provision System and its effect. Then she received successive questions from participating medical institutions.
Accordingly, it showed that the recent hot topic of “Work Style Reform” has attracted great attention in medical institutions throughout the country.

Sponsoring Companies

• Aso Corporation ／ TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION ／ Hitachi, Ltd. ／ Mitsubishi Corporation