Many companies now rapidly try to adopt the philosophy and tools of lean production to improve their production performances. Many parts of the companies are affected by such a transition and it has a clear positive influence on the materials flow. The aim is to identify the required changes of the manufacturing planning and control system while moving towards lean. The study shows a number of examples where the planning system ought to be aligned to a transition in direction towards lean, but also that the present planning system in no way is hindering the start of a lean implementation. läs mer »

The main objective was to explore in what way an improved design of the planning and control system could contribute to proper resource utilization and to what extent the required service level could be achieved for all patients. The study uncovered a great deal of improvement potential in the surgery planning process. The planning process proved to be “unbalanced”, implying that too little attention was paid to the upper planning levels (SOP and master planning), and that most effort was put into priority planning on the detailed level. läs mer »