A Lean Laboratory ‘Goes Green’
The clinical laboratory at Children’s Medical Center (CMC) in Dallas, Texas has fully embraced LEAN by decreasing waste (muda) in order to increase value for patients. They decided to form a “LEAN Green Team” and took the concepts of recycle, reuse, and reduce and applied them to various areas within the lab. They have nourished its LEAN culture and philosophy by the applying its principles to the establishment, maintenance, and improvement of the green program.
The lab has two main goals:
- to illustrate the ease with which a clinical laboratory can become more environmentally friendly
- to demonstrate how the core concepts of recycle, reuse, and reduce are inherently LEAN in that waste is minimized
The article highlights their efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle in the lab. For example, one project is investigating how the ice packs that arrive with reagents may be reused, as the supplier of the hospital’s blood bank may be able to reuse them for product shipment.
By recycling waste, reusing supplies, and reducing the lab’s energy and supply needs, the clinical laboratory is not only acting as a responsible steward of the planet, the employees are also fulfilling the hospital’s mission. The LEAN, green lab provides outstanding service while also operating efficiently to save money that the hospital can use to serve even more children.
You can read the entire article at https://www.mlo-online.com/home/article/13003658/a-lean-laboratory-goes-green
You can also read a summary of the article from Mark Graban’s Lean Blog website
