Targeting lean process improvement projects for maximum financial impact

Lean process improvement in outpatient healthcare systems

This paper considers the migration of lean process improvement methods from hospital systems to outpatient clinics. We review the strengths and weaknesses of a series of lean projects that were conducted in a community mental health center over a four-year period. We consider the evolution of the organization’s lean approaches and project results to identify areas of continuing research that ap...

Lean Manufacturing Principles Improving the Targeting Process

Applying 5S Lean Technology: An Infrastructure for Continuous Process Improvement

This paper presents an application of 5S lean technology to a production facility. Due to increased demand, high product variety, and a push production system, the plant has suffered from excessive wastes, unorganized workstations, and unhealthy work environment. This has translated into increased production cost, frequent delays, and low workers morale. Under such conditions, it has become dif...

Lean Participative Process Improvement: Outcomes and Obstacles in Trauma Orthopaedics

OBJECTIVES To examine the effectiveness of a "systems" approach using Lean methodology to improve surgical care, as part of a programme of studies investigating possible synergy between improvement approaches. SETTING A controlled before-after study using the orthopaedic trauma theatre of a UK Trust hospital as the active site and an elective orthopaedic theatre in the same Trust as control. ...

Creating and sustaining a Lean culture of continuous process improvement.

Lean is the automobile manufacturing production system of the Toyota Motor Corporation that many businesses have been trying to reproduce for over 30 years.1,2 To desire the benefits of Lean requires direct extrapolation or some parallel of Toyota’s manufacturing-based production methods of efficiency and process improvement to different work environments. This is not as easy as it may seem, es...