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NHS National Services Scotland, on behalf of the country's health service organisations, is establishing a framework agreement to support the introduction of the management technique, first used by vehicle manufacturers including Toyota.
'Lean' manufacturing involves cutting wasteful activity and standardising processes. Some English NHS trusts have introduced lean techniques, including to improve clinical processes, claiming this has improved their reliability at the same time as making them quicker.
The Scottish tender, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 28 January 2009, aims to establish a four year deal of between £1m and £10m involving several suppliers.
They will support health service organisations in training, modelling, planning and undertaking lean projects. The results will be owned by the Scottish government for reuse across the country's public sector.
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