Improving healthcare warehouse operations through 5S

Abstract

Typically, Lean strategies in healthcare aim at improving patient throughput, reducing medication errors, redesigning work flow, improving patient safety, and reducing cycle time. Documented studies to improve healthcare's warehouse operations are not common in the literature. Managing types of medical supplies has always been a priority due to demand uncertainties and the risk of shortages that would profoundly affect patient safety. This study showcases two implementation approaches of the Lean tool 5S (Hybrid and Traditional) conducted in three different hospitals’ central warehouses at Ochsner Health System. These warehouses store similar medical products with over 1,000 types of supplies (e.g., syringes, gloves, primary IV) that supply different departments within hospitals and clinics. The objective was to compare the impact of implementing Hybrid 5S (integrated with inventory management techniques and process improvement tools) with Traditional 5S to improve healthcare warehouse operations. Both approaches resulted in increased inventory turnover (30% increase from Hybrid 5S and 4.0% and 43% increase from the two Traditional 5S). The Hybrid 5S approach had additional improvements including 15.7% space saved and the least non-conformities to the 5S ideals. Hence, by incorporating industrial engineering techniques such as inventory management, results from Lean tools can be enhanced.