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Lean in the laboratory: the importance of partners in process improvement

The Beckman Coulter approach to Lean processing is beginning to deliver productivity and safety benefits throughout pathology, as Michelle Normington explains. Introducing Lean principles into the hospital laboratory can increase speed, efficiency and quality. The system offers a very practical approach to identifying and eliminating waste, described by the Japanese term ‘muda’. Originally developed for Toyota to improve manufacturing processes, the principles have evolved into a powerful system that can be applied to pathology services worldwide.

A Lean process produces what is required, at the right time and to the quality and price expected. In pathology, that means the correct result, first time, every time. A laboratory that adopts these principles understands that ‘competition’ is always increasing – something particularly significant to the modern NHS laboratory service – so improvement has to be continuous.

In Europe, Beckman Coulter UK is providing a lead by initiating a series of innovative Lean process improvement workshops. These are designed to encourage and support customers as they implement this new approach – and importantly, to help them sustain improvements. The first interactive workshop of 2010 was held recently in Hampshire, attended by participants from laboratories in Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium as well as the UK.

Process mapping helps to eliminate waste
Essentially, Lean is a collaborative, mutually supportive and visual process for deciding what is of value, and what can be eliminated. It also looks at the way processes link into each other. For example, the way a sample moves through pathology, from receipt to report/result, and how this process can be optimised.

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