Application of a hybrid selective inventory control technique in a hospital: a precursor for inventory reduction through lean thinking

Abstract

PurposeThe cost of providing healthcare is spiralling up in recent times. On the one hand, patients expect the highest quality of service, while on the other hand, the managers of the healthcare services want to minimise the total operating expenses. Hence, healthcare organisations implement lean thinking (LT) to achieve these twin objectives. LT reduces the eight wastes that are prevalent in the healthcare processes and functions. In particular, if the wasteful inventories related to expensive medical supplies are reduced, the resulting cost savings can help in providing affordable and accessible healthcare.Design/methodology/approachHence, in this paper, a case study of a hospital is presented where LT is implemented. One of the projects was related to inventory reduction in the store of the catheterisation laboratory (cath lab). A hybrid methodology called multi-unit selective inventory control (MUSIC) that combined these three dimensions (3D), namely, consumption value, criticality and lead time or ease of availability was used to classify the medical supplies into different categories.FindingsBased on the results obtained, various inventory systems and the associated tools and techniques of LT were proposed. For example, a deep dive into the A-class items revealed that some of the medical supplies fell under both vital and scarce categories. Hence, it was recommended that the case hospital should follow the economic order quantity (EOQ) with safety stock approach as these items were to be shipped from other states in India. Subsequently, the focus should be on developing a local supplier and attempts should be made to establish a kanban system with adequate information sharing.Practical implicationsThis study demonstrates the step-by-step methodology of MUSIC-3D which would guide the procurement managers to apply the same in their organisation. It also helps them in identifying appropriate elements of LT for inventory reduction before the actual deployment.Originality/valueNone of the papers has utilised the MUSIC-3D methodology as a precursor for inventory reduction, specifically within the domain of LT. Similarly, identifying and proposing different type of inventory systems and various LT practices based on this unique method is a novel attempt.

Kanban system applications in healthcare services: A literature review

“…The most recent evidence, showed by Gurumurthy et al 37 . demonstrates that inventory reduction is possible employing appropriate tools and techniques of Lean Thinking.…”

Point-of-use hospital inventory management with inaccurate usage capture

“…Some researchers, such as [8,9,11,13,15,26] and [12] provide specific case studies or numerical analyses, where a hospital, or hospitals, are measured before and after an implementation of different supply chain modifications. While insightful, researchers fail to address inaccuracy or optimization of the system.…”

“…While information accuracy is mentioned in the paper, the authors refer to pharmacy order information rather than accuracy of available on-hand stock. A more recent article from this group focuses on the application of Lean Thinking to improve inventory control in a specific case, but also suggests the improvements only work with adequate information sharing without a solution to address information accuracy [12].…”

“…For comprehensive reviews of health care related inventory or supply chain models, see [2,19,28,29,34] and [12]. In [34], the authors focus on literature that is quantitatively oriented and suggest several areas of potential future research.…”

“…The authors also indicate that there remains difficulty within industry of maintaining up-to-date inventory management parameters. Beyond the case study discussed previously, [12] also provides a comprehensive, well-organized list of articles that address healthcare inventory models in recent years.…”