Akron Children's Hospital embraces lean strategies of manufacturing
Author: Powell, Cheryl
The article summarizes the first few years of effort at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio. Benefits from their use of Lean and Six Sigma methods include:
- Avoidance of a $3.6 million expansion of a sterile processing department
- Cost savings of $708,000 from the first 28 lean projects
Improvements are staff-driven, based on their analysis of the current process:
"But after an intensive look at the way instruments are cleaned, sterilized and delivered to surgery, the staff was able to speed up the process with some small changes, all within five days.
The ideas were simple and cheap — things like knocking out a half wall for more visibility, hanging up signs to let people know where supplies go and assigning workers specific tasks each day, rather than having the same people assemble equipment and then deliver it."
Click to read more
