But We're Different !

I recently spent a day at a great Quality in Healthcare conference and repeatedly heard variations on this theme:

• "We're different"
• "This isn't like manufacturing."
• "Health care is more complex."
• "Health care is the Mother of all service industries."
• or the admission from a recently enlightened doctor who admitted "I didn't used to think I was in a service industry; I'm a urologist, not a waiter."

In talking to other sectors about various process improvement methods, I hear similar laments:

• "That wouldn't apply here."
• "We're already lean and mean, we don't need that stuff."
• "Yes, but we're in the [totally unique] industry. That [pick one - manufacturing/service/health care/mumbo jumbo] stuff doesn't make sense for us."

And yet, when I pursue the topic, and explore what issues they're having, and what they want to achieve, I hear the same things from everyone in every industry:

• "We need to do more with less."
• "We've got to increase our capacity."
• "How do we get our people engaged?"
• "We've got to reduce warranty claims/errors/defects/problems/lead time"
• "There's a lot more competition."
• "We've got to streamline our process."
• "We've got to get different departments to work together."

Sure, the specific words might change from industry to industry, but the concepts are identical. Yes, your industry is different, you may work on house plumbing, or oil refinery piping, or sales pipelines, or people's pipes (like our urologist buddy), but the desire for improvement, and the methods for improvement, are universal.

Medical clinics can learn from restaurants about access and queuing. Restaurants can learn from manufacturers about flow and efficiency. Manufacturers can learn from financial services about customer relationships. And financial planners can learn from entertainers about thrilling customers.

Like everyone else, you are different. But the way to be really truly different is to realize how much the same you are. Then, you can learn from all industries, not just your own.