Lean in healthcare : history and recent developments

Guest editorial: Continual pressures on healthcare budgets coupled with increasing demands (Institute of Medicine, 2012; OECD, 2002; Porter and Lee, 2013) and evidence of poor performance have led national and local healthcare organizations to look for methods to improve quality, safety and value in health service delivery. Increasingly this search for solutions has extended beyond the boundaries of healthcare practice to investigate methods that have been successfully employed in other industries. Lean Systems Thinking (LST) and continuous improvement activities have come to the attention of healthcare administrators looking for ways to improve organizational performance. Originating in the work of Deming (1953), and refined in Japan, lean techniques and lean management principles have been developing in manufacturing settings since the 1950s. After becoming prominent in the early 1980s, lean practices have more recently been introduced into service industries.