摘要:The application of value stream mapping (VSM) for performance improvement in service companies including healthcare service systems is still in development in Latin America. When this Lean tool is applied with a systemic approach for mapping these value streams, the application should represent customer actions and interactions within the complete service system and the internal interactions between contact employees (front office) and back office employees, as well as identify the segments of the value stream as loops, defining these loops as partial units of improvement. A value stream in a clinical laboratory in Colombia was selected as the application case. Three loops were identified in this value stream: blood sample collection loop, sample processing loop (chemical analyses and tests) and results delivery loop (report of findings). This research only focuses on improving the sample collection loop. Lean Thinking principles and tools are applied in order to improve value flow to customers and key operative performance indicators of the system. Some of those key operational performance indicators were improved above 20%.
关键词:System Thinking;Lean Thinking;Health care Service;Process Loop;Pensamiento sistémico;Pensamiento Lean;Servicios de salud;Bucle de proceso