The barriers to implementation of lean techniques at x and y health care institutions

The Aim of the Work: To disclose the barriers to implementation of Lean techniques at X and Y health care institutions. The Objectives: 1. To disclose the barriers to implementation of Lean techniques at X and Y health care institutions from the standpoint of employees. 2. To disclose the barriers to implementation of Lean techniques at X and Y health care institutions from the standpoint of institution management. 3. To compare the barriers to implementation of Lean techniques that appeared at X and Y health care institutions. The Methods: In March 2017, the quantitative survey was carried out at X and Y health care institutions. To conduct interviews with the employees-Lean trainees, an anonymous questionnaire was applied. 56 items of anonymous questionnaire were handed out to the employees-Lean trainees working at X and Y health care institutions, response rate – 100 per cent. The qualitative survey was carried out in April 2017. Half-structured method of interviewing was applied and data analysis conducted. Heads of X and Y health care institutions were interviewed. Statistical analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and Microsoft Excel 2016 software. The Results. After investigating the means of average estimates of barrier blocs of employees, it became evident that at health care institutions, most frequently met were informing barriers (at the X health care institution M= 3.84; at the Y health care institution M= 3.88) as well as abilities barriers (at the X health care institution M= 3.55; at the Y health care institution M= 4.13) and management barriers (at the X health care institution M= 3.64; at the Y health care institution M= 3.45). The employees of health care institutions did not agree with the statements that information on potential changes in jobs due to implementation of Lean techniques had been provided (at the X institution M= 3.3; at the Y institution M= 2.73), they had been informed on potential changes in salaries (at X institution M=2.60; at Y institution M=2.07); that training to acquire Lean knowledge, other competencies and abilities had been sufficient in order to implement Lean (at the X institution M=3.27; at the Y institution M= 3.35). Analysis of means of average estimates of barrier blocs demonstrated that employees at the X health care institution more often met social psychological barriers to a greater extent than employees at the Y institution (at the X institution M=2.73; at the Y institution M=2.19). The employees at the Y health care institution had been thinking that they had been involved into the training to a greater extent than those at the X health care institution (p=0.007). Employees at the Y institution have been thinking that they had acquired more sufficient knowledge to implement Lean than those at X institution (p=0.006). The employees at the X institution had been thinking that they had been unsecured, with fears and worries about their jobs and positions to a greater extent than employees at the Y institution (p=0.009). The employees of the X institution more frequently had been thinking that they would carry out the work entrusted upon them improperly on the basis of Lean techniques than those of the Y institution (p=0.001). The employees at the X institution had been more indifferent towards Lean implementation and had not made efforts to change their habits than those at the Y institution (p=0.005). The employees of the X institution had been in greater fear when consulting the management, because the managers could have doubts about their knowledge than those of the Y institution (p=0.005). The employees of the X institution had been thinking about Lean implementation more as extra obstruction against their routine work than employees of the Y institution (p=0.014). The employees of the Y institution had discerned that they had been more involved into planning works concerning Lean implementation than employees of the X institution (p=0.005). The employees of the X institution believed that they received more help from the management than employees of the Y institution from their management (p=0.007). The employees of the X institution sensed higher lack of employees which aggravated implementation of the Lean than those of the Y institution (p=0.048). From the standing point of the head of the X health care institution, his institution mostly faced awareness and information barriers, while from the standing point of the Y health care institution head, the greatest negative impact had been related with poor planning of Lean, its execution and organizing. Conclusions. 1. From the standing point of the employees of the health care institutions surveyed, during Lean implementation they faced awareness, abilities and management barriers of managing. From the standing point of employees, awareness and informative barriers showed the greatest increase. 2. From the standing point of management of the X and Y health care institutions, an institution faced awareness, abilities, social-psychological, resources barriers, yet, the awareness / informative and abilities barriers had been singled out as obstructing Lean implementation to the greatest extent, as well as poor planning and organizing of the Lean implementation. 3. The employees at the Y health care institution had been involved into training to a greater extent and security feeling had been more sensed than at the X health care institution. Head of the X health care institution provided more help than at the Y institution