Cardinal Health Alaris Products, which makes pumps and disposables for infusions, was in critical shape in the late 1990s and needed to address the business on all fronts.  The company’s transformation started before its acquisition by Cardinal Health in 2004 and yet the philosophy of operational excellence through the use of Lean-Six Sigma tools since the acquisition has only gotten stronger.

      The prescription was improvements in customer satisfaction and the company’s finances.  Not only did this require a change in how we thought as leaders of the company but it would also require us to create a culture that would engage everyone working together toward the same goals.  We launched a lean implementation in all five manufacturing sites at the same time to gain as much benefit as fast as possible.  

      We took action by focusing on the customers, quality of our products and services, culture, employees and processes we used to conduct business.  Our customers cover a wide range: hospital supply chain, chief information officer interested in software for its hospital, and clinicians, such as the chief of nursing or physicians. On top of operating within a highly regulated industry, we have to be aware of the impact our products have on other products and processes linked together in healthcare.

      David Schlotterbeck, then President & CEO of Alaris and today the CEO, Clinical and Medical Products for Cardinal Health, was instrumental in obtaining the alignment and engagement of the senior leadership when we first started our transformation. He continues to be a key leader in Lean-Six-Sigma implementation at Cardinal Health. 

            At Alaris we engaged the American Society for Quality to provide a one-day Six Sigma executive leadership session for a cross-functional group of leaders and set objectives. We questioned if our current order fulfillment of 98 percent is acceptable to our customers. Also we focused on the difference between perceived quality and value against actual...

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