A Lean Lab Example
A tour of a LEAN-inspired clinical laboratory | DailyKaizen Here’s a nice story by Dr. Ted Eytan about a lab that a colleague of mine worked with in their Lean efforts. It is actually a lab that is mentioned briefly…
Tag Laboratory
Another Pathology Mishap
L.I. Hospital Scrutinized After Deaths of Patients – New York Times It wasn’t the same laboratory this time, but it’s more than likely a similar root cause. I wrote before about pathology specimen labeling errors, how they’re preventable human error.…
Hospital Laboratory Mixups Will Happen Again, Unless…
‘I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’ This will happen again, unless the process is fixed. Lean can help. Please read on… I heard about this story this morning, this horrible tragedy where a 35-year old woman, Darrie…
LAME: Lean is Not Automation
Here’s another example of what you might call “L.A.M.E” (“Lean” As Misguidedly Executed) instead of “Lean.” I received a disturbing report in my email inbox two weeks ago, a report that tries to co-opt Lean and the Toyota Production System…
Lean, Batch Sizes, and Equipment Selection
This has always been a problem in the manufacturing world — companies selecting equipment that is “biggest, fastest, and cheapest” (or at least “cheapest” in terms of unit cost). To be cheapest, the machine usually has a giant batch size,…
Being Careful Isn’t Enough, Particularly in Pathology
One of the core ideas of the Toyota Production System is the recognition that people are indeed human and are therefore fallible (part of the “respect for humanity” tenet of TPS). No amount of “be careful” warnings will prevent all…
The Need for Lean Laboratories
Hospitals move to cut dangerous lab errors Here is a free version of a WSJ article from last week. I know I’ve been posting about “lean healthcare” a lot this week, I hope that is of interest to the manufacturing…
