CMCD's lab draws on academics, automakers, and therapists to realize its own vision of excellence

Focused on transforming the laboratory at Children's Medical Center Dallas into a learning organization, the lab's leaders looked beyond benchmarking to develop a customized approach—measured against their own ideal state—to achieve operational excellence. By applying lean principles, systems thinking, and family system theory; improving the facility's physical layout; and, most important, redefining the role between supervisors and staff workers, the lab has cut its turnaround times, improved service to patients and physicians, and evolved into a work environment that fosters personal and professional development. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.