Scaling lean: Empowering 35,000 problem-solvers with a small lean team
OVERVIEW
Join Emily Swaney and Todd Schneider as they share how we embraced the challenge of empowering our small lean team of 11 individuals to support an organization in its journey to develop 35,000 problem solvers. Through the years, their team has crafted an approach that allows them to work most effectively in partnership with OhioHealth’s leaders to drive continued progress in the Management System.
They’ll highlight their team’s structure and coverage model and will share their “tricks of the trade” that allow their small team to successfully support 16 hospitals and over 200 ambulatory sites in a comprehensive management system including a mature lean daily management model, tiered huddles, strategy deployment, kaizen facilitation and operational excellence.
Key Learning Objectives
1. Challenge the concept that limited lean resources are a barrier to success.
2. Understand how to influence without authority by developing a healthy partnership between the lean team and organizational leaders.
3. Develop a support model that most effectively unlocks the potential in every leader to promote a problem-solving culture.
Todd Schneider is a senior lean advisor in the Lean Promotion Office for OhioHealth. He has a B.S. in industrial engineering and management from North Dakota State University and a master’s in business administration from Florida State University.
He has over 20 years of PI experience in pediatric, for-profit and not-for-profit health systems. Schneider is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers, a fellow in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and a diplomate and past president of IISE's Society for Health Systems.
Emily Swaney is the Vice President of Operational Excellence at OhioHealth, a health system based in Columbus, Ohio with 16 hospitals and 200+ ambulatory locations. She provides executive leadership for the Lean Promotion Office and Enterprise Project Management Office, leading efforts to advance OhioHealth’s management system, align strategic priorities with enterprise goals, and build the organizational capabilities required to deliver sustainable performance improvement across the health system.
With more than 15 years of healthcare operational excellence experience, Emily is recognized for helping organizations build cultures where leaders and associates are empowered to solve problems, improve performance, and create lasting value. Her expertise spans management system development, Hoshin Kanri, Lean Daily Management, executive coaching, enterprise project governance, and large-scale organizational transformation.
Emily is a frequent contributor to the operational excellence community, sharing her experience and perspective through articles, podcasts, webinars, and conference presentations. Her work focuses on advancing Lean thinking, developing leaders and problem solvers, and translating operational excellence principles into meaningful and sustainable results in healthcare.
Emily was named the 2026 Shingo Rising Star Award recipient and recognized as a member of the 2026 Columbus Business First 40 Under 40 class. She holds a Master of Business in Operational Excellence from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science in Operations Management and Marketing from the University of Dayton, where she also serves on the Operations Management Advisory Board. She is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, serves as a coach for Ohio State’s Master of Business in Operational Excellence program, and is a board member for the Hilliard Food Pantry.
