This magazine has come to define “modern” as something you are rather than something you use. That's the concept behind our new Modern Thinker award. Read our entire original article.

The award recognizes people who have rethought materials handling and shared that new vision with their organization to make it a better place. These people are bringing attention to our art and science for all the right reasons. They represent the future of materials handling.

The winner of Modern's first Modern Thinker award is Tim Cavanagh.

He has been a student of the Toyota Management System for 20 years. As director of process innovation at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, he applies the lean and Six Sigma lessons he picked up from industry to help deliver healthcare more efficiently.

Cavanagh says an emergency department is like the manufacturing floor. Just as opportunities to be more efficient extend from that floor all the way back into engineering, product development and customer service, so the same kinds of opportunities extend from the ED all the way back to nursing floors. These are the places where work flow is poor, the labs don't turn quick enough, and patients are staged in hallways waiting for a bed. Same principle, different industry.

Cavanagh saw nurses going back and forth to the supply room, back and forth to the med room, back to linens, and found they were traveling more than 5 miles a shift. He and his team found ways to get supplies closer to the point of use, just as they do in the best DCs. As a result, nurses at Lawrence & Memorial aren't running around as much. They spend more time with patients. Hence the quality of care has gone up.

The hospital's head of materials management is also more efficient. That means spending more time getting suppliers in and working with the front-line staff to get them things the way they need them—and when they need them.

Other Productivity Award Winners: CAMI Automotive | Staples | American Eagle