How to increase value and reduce waste in research: initial experiences of applying Lean thinking and visual management in research leadership

Abstract

Waste in research has been well documented, but initiatives to reduce it are scarce. Here, we share our initial experiences of implementing Lean thinking and visual management into hospital research units in the Region of Southern Denmark. A Transformation Guiding Team (TGT) anchored in the top management was established with participation from leaders, researchers and patient representatives. The role of the TGT was to implement Lean methods, considering patients as primary end-users of the research results. This is in line with an explicit decision on setting patient values first in clinical settings at participating hospitals. The leaders of the research units were instructed in Lean thinking and Lean methods during a five-module course focusing on increasing value and reducing waste in research production. Initial experiences were that Lean tools could create a patient-centred vision that through visual management could identify waste in work processes. Concerns were lack of evidence for using Lean methods in research leadership and that the model itself could be a time consumer. Some lessons learnt were that adding Lean tools in research leadership should not just provide increased research productivity, but also improve other important key performance indicators such as quality of research and patient-relevant results. We intend to evaluate the value of the initiative by follow-up research and publish the outcome of key behavioural and key performance indicators.

The use and application of Lean Management methods to research processes—a scoping review protocol

“…We also anticipate that our review will be one of the first of its kind within the field of process improvement models implemented in research processes, as the field is not well studied. 1 Probable limitations to our review are that we will not report on the methodology of the included studies in this review. Moreover, we will not synthesise the results by calculating the effectiveness of the implementation, which is a potential objective for future systematic reviews and meta-analyses.…”

“… 1–4 Given the foundational role of research in shaping patient treatment, coupled with the complex nature of research and its numerous operational challenges (e.g., continuous regulatory and policy modifications, finding funding, approval of new studies and protocols, inclusion of patients, data gathering, data analysing, and publishing papers), it is paramount to identify approaches that promote efficiency and decrease unnecessary process components in this environment. 1 5 Addressing this issue could entail the implementation of a continuous improvecment model, as a Lean model, which emphasises on enhancing value for the end-user and for reducing production and transaction costs and, thus, ‘provides a way to do more and more with less and less’. 6 7 Lean Management is widely used within the hospital sector to create a better workflow for health professionals and to create efficiency of treatment and general patient care.…”

“… 12 13 It is believed that healthcare and the manufacturing industry are quite similar, as they are both composed of a series of complex organisations and multiple interacting processes. 1 9 However, the Lean Management model implemented at the Virginia Mason Medical Centre was not used as a manufacturing strategy but rather as a management strategy based on improving processes in a system. 12 In the academic literature, attention to Lean Management has developed from an initial ‘shop-floor focus’ on waste and cost reduction to an approach that consistently seeks to enhance benefit (or perceived benefit) for end-users by adding product or service features and/or removing ‘wasteful’ activities.…”

“…This argumentation is especially important within clinical healthcare research processes, as it affects both treatments and patient care. 1 9 16 17 …”

Visual Solutions as a Way to Improve Work Safety When Using Machines – Selected Aspects of VM

“…higher education [13], banking services market [14], health care [15], petrochemical industry [16], as well as in areas connected with: waste identification [17], tools suitable for the 4.0 industry affecting the human-computer interaction [18], boosting supply chain efficiency [19], or the identification of materials in a workshop of the maintenance department [20]. The broad use of visual management did not bypass the area connected with work safety and ergonomics.…”