To cite: Margolius D, Ranji SR. BMJ Qual Saf 2015;24:477–479. Front-line healthcare workers are the first to witness the everyday errors that occur in patient care—when a medication dose is delayed, or when an unnecessary test causes harm. Residents and interns are those front-line workers in academic medical centres, working for up to 80 h a week for at least 3 years (in the USA). Just as hosp...

BACKGROUND Dietary fat composition is thought to affect body weight regulation independent of the amount of fat ingested. OBJECTIVE We analyzed the feeding behavior, body weight gain, body composition, and energy metabolism in lean and obese rats fed a diet in which fat was in the form of either butter or soybean oil. DESIGN Ten lean (Fa/?) and 10 obese (fa/fa) adult Zucker rats were divide...

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to propose a robust ‘observation’ procedure drawn from the social science research literature for adoption in a Lean Six Sigma project setting. A case study illustrates the application of the proposed observation procedure in a Lean Six Sigma project undertaken in a European airport to improve process speed and reduce variability. Design/methodology/approach...

A lean manufacturing simulation model was created that replicated the existing assembly system as well as a potential system of similar capacity that modified the existing design to incorporate lean manufacturing shop-floor principles. Arena’s manufacturing simulation software generated performance statistics for both systems and measured each system’s resource requirements and performance in t...

Purpose: The aim of this research is to examine how lean has been implemented at geriatric care in a municipal department in Sweden, focusing on the experiences and challenges of the employees, together with the strengths and weaknesses of the lean philosophy. Design/methodology/approach: The primary method used was a case study with interviews and observations on spot, in combination with a li...

PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to discuss the current state of implementation of Lean production in health care. The study focuses on the definition of Lean in health care and implementation process, barriers, challenges, enablers, and outcomes of implementing Lean production methods in health care. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH A comprehensive search of the literature concerning the im...

Most multimedia applications today run with the support of an operating system, a graphics driver and related libraries. We present a lean graphics architecture for a bare PC that has no operating system or kernel running in the machine. The architecture enables a multimedia application to be independent of any computing environment and avoids dependencies on other software. To maintain simplic...

BACKGROUND Lean mass and resting energy expenditure (REE) decrease with age. However, it is unknown whether age-related changes in regional lean and fat mass are responsible for the age-related decrease in REE. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to determine how regional lean and fat mass vary with age and whether age is independently related to REE after adjustment for regional fat and lean mass. ...

This paper presents an ethnographic account of the implementation of Lean service redesign methodologies in one UK NHS hospital operating department. It is suggested that this popular management 'technology', with its emphasis on creating value streams and reducing waste, has the potential to transform the social organisation of healthcare work. The paper locates Lean healthcare within wider de...

Building with Building Information Modelling (BIM) changes design and production processes. But can BIM be used to support process changes designed according to lean production and lean construction principles? To begin to answer this question we provide a conceptual analysis of the interaction of lean construction and BIM for improving construction. This was investigated by compiling a detaile...