Lean principles for healthcare

Abstract

Lean thinking, which developed from lean manufacturing or the Toyota Production System, is centred around elimination of waste and preserving value. Lean became especially important, some may go so far to say a fad, in manufacturing in the 1990s. So why in the twenty-first century might the principles of lean be relevant to healthcare? In order to understand this, we need to recognise that healthcare delivery today is facing many pressures much like much of the manufacturing industries in the 1990s. The following serves to introduce key concepts that fall within taking a lean philosophy and explore how/why they might be relevant to healthcare.