Table 2 Comparison of application of lean management in manufacturing and health-care organization

Overproduction

Producing ahead of need

Unnecessary treatment and overuse of diagnostic testing

Clear treatment goals and end-of-life decision guidelines

Waiting

Operators standing idle waiting for other workers or machines to finish

Patient waits for an appointment, for test results, for a bed, for discharge paperwork

Clear admission and discharge guidelines

Transport

Moving parts and products unnecessarily

Taking patients to and from tests, moving patients from one room to another

Diagnostic tests being performed at bed side

Over Processing

Performing unnecessary or incorrect activities

Unnecessary forms, asking the same patient the same question more than once, charting everything instead of charting by exception

Digital system Preventing re-enter of patient data Patient centric rounding

Inventory

Having more than the minimum stock necessary

Overstocked drugs that expire, under stocked surgical supplies that lead to delays while staff search for them

Pooling of inventories within the hospital or even within the region just in time

Motion

Making workers look for parts, tools, documents, etc

Searching for supplies, forms, drugs

Correct and logic labelling of all supplies, forms, and drugs

Defects

Inspection, rework, and scrapping parts that do not meet standards

Making and correcting errors, checking for errors

Clear protocols including feedback mechanisms and e-alerts

Talent Waste

Failure to listen to employee ideas for improvement

Using highly trained individuals to do jobs that could be performed by less expensive personnel, failure to listen to employee ideas for improvement

Focus on ICU physician and ICU nurse specific tasks and outsource tasks such as washing patients, paperwork, and move tasks down from ICU physician to ICU nurse when possible