Lean demand management: application in a national health department

Abstract

Demand management is essential for any organization and seeks to balance demand and productive capacity with a focus on customer orders. Thus, raising and studying in detail the demands is necessary in order to plan the daily operations, independently of being manufacturing or services, private or public sectors. Lean Thinking is a philosophy that emerged in the manufacturing field to improve production systems performance, simultaneously reducing operational wastes. This article aims to apply Lean principles to demand management in a Brazilian government department responsible for managing strategic health projects. Through interviews with managers 1027 monthly demands were raised in the department, of which 308 are demands requested and executed internally and 719 are transversal between various sectors. In addition, 42–45% of such demands are related to advisory and administrative support, taking the department’s focus on processes that add value, such as Policies and Norms, Regional Monitoring, Qualification and Accreditation, and Projects and Studies. Regarding Lean waste, after the survey of demands, the operations related to the main demands showed waste according to the Ohno classification: 32% were classified as overprocessing, waiting 28%, and overproduction and defects/quality 14% each. This panorama demonstrates the need for better demand management so that the processes focus on delivering value, overcoming the resistance of employees as an obstacle.