How can lean thinking increase productivity in health, and what ideas are transferable to health from other sectors? This workshop outlined the three phases of lean development. It described how services could be organised and flows of patients standardised to minimise movement and storage, and increase flows. Presentations covered service redesign projects in ambulance, sterile services and A&E, and a pilot project at Portsmouth Hospital which is using technology to stream patients according to their need. Examples from US health facilities showed how standardisation of designs for surgical units and patient bedrooms are providing the flexibility to acccommodate future changes. In the commercial office and education sectors, planning is shifting from bland open-plan design based on mass production principles to a more considred differentiation of workplaces based on tasks and activities.

Presentations

Implications of lean thinking for healthcare: Daniel T Jones, Lean Enterprise Academy - pdf, 34kb
What does lean mean?: Kate Silvester, National Clinical Systems Engineering Programme, Osprey - pdf, 313kb
Design for change: Nicholas Morgan and Alison White, DEGW - pdf, 816kb
The Lean Hospital: Applying Lessons from other Sectors: Andie Hallihan and Andrew Castle, Applied Angle - pdf, 224kb
Lean by Design: Alistair Cory and Richard Dallam, NBBJ - pdf, 5690kb