MBA – FT ‘E’, II Semester

CASE STUDY
To Build a Better, Hospital Virginia Mason takes lessons from Toyota plant

Presented By:-
FACULTY Abhas Dave
Dr.Chanchala Jain Anudeep Poddar
Chirag Agrawal
Virginia Mason’s Managers Visit Toyota Plants in Japan

Why they were turning out great results?

 To lift efficiency lessons directly from leaders in

industrial manufacturing
 Changes at Virginia Mason
•Some small and some very significant.
•Another changes borrowed from manufacturing is the patient
safety alert system. 
•As on the manufacturing floor, if an error is found, the whole
process is stopped and they start searching for the solution. fixed
immediately
 These led to
• Tangible benefits
• Reduction in waiting time
• Lowering costs by $1 million
• Productivity increased to 90%
Ques1-What are the wastes identified by the hospital management in their health
facility?

Waste that was identified by the hospital management in their health

facility are-
• Overproduction waste.
• Inventory Waste- Having more materials and  information that is not
necessary.
• Increased Cost- Temporary Labor.
• Medically untrained operators.
• Long Process - Doctors wait until the end of the day to go through a
stack of patient records.
• Wasting Of Time.
• Unorganized instrument.
• Leading to mistakes recurring many times before a solution was found.
Ques 2-what are the approaches did the hospital
management embrace to address these waste issues?
Approaches were-
• Implemented the Toyota model in
2003.
• Kanban system.
• Created standardized instrument
• Patient safety alert system.
• Trained Operators.
• Shorter Process.
• Smart Card.
• Total flow—no waiting, no waste and
it’s all about the patient.
Ques-3 What are the similarities
between the hospital and cars that
made management adopt Toyota way in
improvement?

1. Eliminate non-value-added activity

2. Keep inventory low
3. Embrace technology
4. Focus on root causes(Continually
improve)
Ques-4 What is lean methodology and what are its principles?
Lean methodology is a way of optimizing the people, resources, effort, and
energy of your organization toward creating value for the customer. It is based on
two guiding tenets, continuous improvement and respect for people.

Principles of lean methodology :

• Eliminate Waste
• Create Knowledge
• Build Quality In
• Fast Delivery
• Empower Your Team
Ques-5 What were the main concerns of Hospital?

Officials at Virginia Masons were

extremely concerned about the
following factors:

• Safety of patients
• Quality of Treatment
• Patient’s Satisfaction
 Ques-6 Does Lean affect Performance ?

Yes, After adapting Lean manufacturing the performance of the

hospital was improved. It can be justified by the following examples.

• A Kanban System.
• Standardized instrument.
• Development of a flip chart.
• Patient safety alert system
• A smart card