The production line … lessons used from factory processes are now being used in hospitals to make systems run more efficiently.
FORD may have invented the production line but the Toyota system is the most efficient in the automotive world.
Now the Japanese car maker is introducing its production line skills to a cancer unit, working with St Vincentâs Hospital in Melbourne to improve patient treatment times in the oncology ward.
With Toyotaâs help, St Vincentâs has already cut the time it takes to prepare hospital script medications from 210 minutes to 34 minutes.
Now the car maker is working on a new project with the hospital to âstreamline the patient experienceâ when they attend hospital to receive radiation or chemotherapy.
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Toyota is helping the hospital find ways to save time between the various stages of treatment, from blood tests, chemotherapy and other treatment which can add up to an hour between events.
Toyota Australia and St Vincentâs claim they will be able to reduce the time between the various stages of treatment to just 20 minutes.
Toyota Australia President Dave Buttner told News Corp Australia earlier this year the car maker wanted to âcontribute to societyâ after its Altona assembly line closes in 2017.
âWe identified health care as a sector that would be able to benefit from Toyotaâs expert knowledge in running efficient production lines,â said Mr Buttner.
Working with St Vincentâs Hospital, Mr Buttner said Toyotaâs goal was to âalleviate some of the stresses staff and patients experience with the current system, and allow staff to concentrate on improving their patientsâ quality of lifeâ.
Toyotaâs team of experts is now working with the St Vincentâs oncology unit to âstreamline administrative processes and appointmentsâ, enabling patients to spend less time at hospital.
St Vincentâs Hospital CEO Ben Fielding said the Toyota partnership was âa natural fitâ given the car makerâs âlean management techniquesâ.
Toyota Australia says it will work with St Vincentâs Hospital until the end of 2015 as part of a $15 million development program partly funded by the Federal Government.
Toyota Australia will close its Altona car assembly line and engine factory in late 2017, the same year as Holden will close its factories and one year after Ford closes its Broadmeadows and Geelong plants.
This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling