title: Operationalizing lean health assets.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate the potential of employing unconventional facility/facilities management (FM) performance indicators in healthcare settings to enable more strategic conversations between FM and business users concerning asset performance.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The theoretical background for a Lean asset approach and a high-level analysis of data from hospital trusts in England have been published elsewhere. This paper reports on the first uses of that approach in operational settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observations are drawn primarily from three case studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The individual studies support the premise that the conventional emphasis on cost per square meter (m(2)) as a preeminent measure of FM disguises a portfolio of too much underutilized space. They provide a means of putting a healthcare estates strategy in terms that will engage business users.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite a growing interest in Lean approaches in healthcare, the philosophy has not yet been extended to the estate. This study demonstrates that alternative benchmarks are possible.
authors.affiliation: Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK. i.price@shu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ilfryn
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pinder
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Wyton
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction; D006801:Humans; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom