Project title: Implementation of lean thinking in public hospital in Saudi Arabia
Organizations cannot be excellent without excellent operations. This places premium on organizations to radically rethink ways of continuously improving the products and services they offer to their customers. Organizations have thus come up with fundamentally different operational approaches to operations planning and control such as lean management, to improve not just their efficiency in their operations but also value added. This is true for all organizations whether in the manufacturing sector or service sector like hospitals. This study aims at the implementation of lean thinking in Saudi Arabian public sector hospitals, with a view to ascertaining best practices and developing practicable recommendations so as to promote positive organisational change. This study will explore how the Saudi Arabian cultural context impacts on lean thinking in Saudi hospitals, in comparison to practices of lean thinking in hospitals in other countries. Methodology: Primary data will be gathered using a mixed data collection method via a combination of semi-structured interviews and largely self-administered questionnaires. An interpretivist, case-study approach will be used.