Siemens Manufacturing Plant Leaning Towards Collaboration With NHS Delegation
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Manufacturing shares ideas with London-based NHS Trust on how streamlining business processes in a production environment helps create efficiencies
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Manufacturing Limited is sharing its experience of ‘Lean' business processes from a manufacturing perspective with the Histopathology department of Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust in Greater London via a series of visits to the Suffolk plant. The site designs and assembles a number of Point of Care instruments including the recently launched RAPIDPoint 500® Blood Gas Analyser.
The Whipps Cross delegation of 30 people chose to visit the plant to see how it implements Lean practices in a production environment to make continuous cost and time savings for the organisation as a whole. Pathology departments have been increasingly implementing Lean methodology to improve the quality, efficiency and safety of their services. The Whipps Histopathology Department, supported by NHS Improvement, is nationally a leader in implementing Lean with an outstanding improvement in service to patients. The visit to Siemens has been designed to gain experience of how Lean is applied in industry and what the benefits in this setting are.
Siemens Healthcare Solutions' team of Lean Certified Consultants had previously implemented some process improvement events in other departments at Whipps Cross Hospital. The Histopathology Department at the hospital secured an internal prize for its previous work in Lean Improvement and decided to expand its knowledge of the Lean process outside the hospital setting. The team identified the Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Manufacturing site in Sudbury as a shining example of the methodology.
"Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Manufacturing Limited in Sudbury has long been an enthusiastic supporter of Lean and optimising business processes, and we are happy to share our knowledge of the philosophy from a manufacturing perspective with the team from Whipps Cross," said Neil Eardley, Managing Director, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Manufacturing Limited in Sudbury.
SOURCE: Siemens Healthcare