The lean management principle originally came from the Toyota manufacturing system and it refers to the concept of reducing waste and eliminating defects during the production process. In lean management, firms analyze their operations to point out wastes and areas of inefficiencies before developing solutions to minimize these wastes and promote efficiency. While lean management principles are largely applied in the manufacturing setting, the lean principles have been successfully applied in the healthcare setting (Yaduvanshi & Sharma, 2017). The Six sigma concept originally came from Motorola and it involves a customer-centered approach, the use of quantitative data in the decision making process, and cost reduction initiatives (McLaughlin & Olson, 2017).
To assess the productivity of PCS, different metrics would be used to assess service quality as well as measure service productivity. The metrics for service quality will include structural quality and process quality while the metrics for measuring service productivity will include inputs and outputs. Based on the above metrics, various opportunities for improvement exist for Physician Care Services, Inc. (PCS).
The first opportunity for improvement is improving service quality by reducing the waiting time for patients. According to the hospital, the total service time is about 20 minutes but there are patients who wait for up to 90 minutes