There is overwhelming consensus among financial services executives that the current risk environment has become significantly more complex, dynamic, and difficult to navigate. Some new mandates are expensive and cut into margins and profitability, so there is a real motivation to not only comply but to more effectively manage the response and cost.

Furthermore, risk failures have forced everyone to rethink how they handle re-regulation, how their staff reacts to re-regulation and what tools to leverage to minimize exposure - and for some strategic firms, how to seek opportunities.

With government budgets in an ever-tightening squeeze unlikely to end any time soon, the public sector is under enormous pressure to cut costs. One obvious option to reach that goal is to eliminate services. And while trimming across the board or cutting out entire services is a viable choice in some situations, in many areas that approach is either impossible or at least extremely unpalatable. That’s why, perhaps more so than in any other arena, the search is on for methods that allow a government organization to maintain or increase services while simultaneously cutting costs. This paper looks at what Lean Six Sigma is and how it can help the public sector control and/or reduce costs while still meeting public demand for their services.

With healthcare costs on a continuous upward trend, it’s not surprising that there is an underlying assumption that quality healthcare is expensive. Or that to improve the quality of care, you have to spend more. This paper provides a brief overview of Lean and Six Sigma, the two most effective improvement disciplines used in business today, and shows they can successfully be applied in healthcare.

Nearly every industry has had to cope with a major change. Yet the recently passed health insurance reform law could be unprecedented in terms of scope because it will affect every aspect of every business involved as a payer in the system, from underwriting to enrollment, from contracting to compliance. Industry leaders know that there are methods and tools out there that can help them not only cope with changes but also emerge stronger and better positioned to have a competitive advantage in the future. This white paper will help you get started along this journey, recapping some of the biggest changes followed by a discussion of ideas about what you can start doing today to prepare.

For over four decades business leaders have been looking for the holy grail for improving business processes. Today there is a set of tools and methods that is gaining new prominence among service companies and public sector agencies alike. It's known as Lean Six Sigma.

In the current healthcare environment, laboratories are faced with unprecedented challenges.  bioMerieux and Guidon Performance Solutions are partnering together to help solve these challenges by changing the way laboratories conduct business.  This white paper addresses some of the most pressing issues labs are facing and how Lean is being effectively used to overcome those issues.