Page 80 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 2 Lean Demy S tifie D 59

Phlebotomists Tube
& nurses

Chem
(Auto)
Blood
bank

UA COAG

Micro
Hemo
(Auto)

FIGURE 2-7 • Hospital lab spaghetti diagram.

Here’s an example from a hospital laboratory (Fig. 2-7). There are five main
processing areas: hematology (HEMO), chemistry (CHEM), coagualtion rate
(COAG), urinary analysis (UA), and microbiology. Many of these areas have
both automated analyzers and manual processes.
Notice that although hematology has 300 orders a day, it’s farther from the
pneumatic tube than UA, which only has 48 orders a day. Moving automated