Synopsis
Lean process improvement is an industry-wide initiative to achieve operational excellence. The lean process approach facilitates improvement of process efficiency and quality while delivering faster service and cost reductions. Originating with the Toyota Production System (TPS) soon after World War II, the concepts of lean implementation are no longer confined to manufacturing. They have been successfully applied to service and administrative processes. Many excellent reference resources on the subject provide the progressive Pharmacy Executive with good background information. For a brief overview, Dennis Tribble et.al have authored a Baxa technical paper specifically for the pharmacy space and is a solid resource on the subject. For a more comprehensive look at translating the TPS to healthcare, read Mark Graban’s Lean Hospitals.
