The critical success factors for successful lean implementation in hospitals

Lean initiatives have been widely used to improve productivity. Several factors should be addressed while implementing lean initiatives in hospitals. In the present work, critical success factors (CSFs) of lean implementation in hospitals were investigated. Published lean CSFs were reviewed and grouped into five categories, i.e., strategic orientation, organisation culture, management system, implementation process, and implementation team. The contribution of the proposed model is twofold: 1) it demonstrates the critical success factors of lean implementation in hospital services; 2) it investigates CSF effects on lean success via structural equation modelling (SEM). The results explore and demonstrate evidence for significant relationships between those factors and lean success which support the proposed hypotheses. The findings are discussed and further researches are offered.