What is the role of quality managers in the lean transformation?

Recently, Melissa Mannon, a former intern at the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, authored this article regarding the role of a Quality Manager in a lean organization. What you will find is that the role changes from that of being a "checker" to that of being a team member in operations. When quality is built into a clinical care process it means the inspectors go away. This frees quality managers to do value added work which includes educating, designing and observing to standard. This is an exciting and energizing role compared to the past. Melissa does an excellent job of explaining the difference with real life examples from ThedaCare. Read the article published in the American Society for Quality Journal. Reprinted with permission from QMJ© 2014 ASQ, http://asq.org.  No further distribution allowed without permission.