(Productivity Press: New York) --  The new book, 5S for Healthcare, by Thomas L. Jackson (Productivity Press, 2009), based on Hiroyuki Hirano’s classic 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace: The Sourcebook for 5S Implementation (Productivity Press, 1995) and modeled after Productivity Press books in the Shopfloor Series, adopts a proven reader-friendly format to impart all the information needed to understand and implement this essential lean methodology. It provides examples and case studies based on the experiences of the principals involved with the Rona Consulting Group, who were responsible for the groundbreaking implementation of the Toyota Production System at the Virginia Mason Medical Center.

While there are a growing number of books based on the Toyota Production System, or lean, focused on health care, there are very few that detail the tools that make lean more than just a way of thinking and that put the methodology into practice.

 …