Lean as a learning system in a hospital ward.

PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to discuss lean as a learning system in a hospital ward. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH Discusses lean as a learning system in a hospital ward. FINDINGS The Toyota veterans are fond of saying, lean is about "making people before making parts" or, in the wards' context, developing nurses before delivering care. ORIGINALITY/VALUE This example in using lean to carefully build a learning environment for staff and management has implications for nursing practice, certainly, but also more generally for lean implementation at large.