The Supply Chain concept is one of the most important ideas to emerge in management research and practice in the last twenty five years. Organizations do not exist in isolation. Any organization, whether a large corporation, public body, or small business, which aims to meet the needs of its...

Geographically-dispersed, global service organisations must find cost-effective ways of delivering consistent service quality while recognising local differences in service culture. For such organisations, the management of operations cannot be separated from issues of training, corporate...

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist is reported to reduce surgical morbidity and mortality, and is mandatory in the UK National Health Service. Hospital audit data show high compliance rates, but direct observation suggests that actual performance may be...

Background Teamwork training and system standardisation have both been proposed to reduce error and harm in surgery. Since the approaches differ markedly, there is potential for synergy between them. Methods Design: Controlled interrupted time series with a 3 month intervention and observation...

Background: We previously developed and validated the Oxford NOTECHS rating system for evaluating the non-technical skills of an entire operating theatre team. Experience with the scale identified the need for greater discrimination between levels of performance within the normal range. We...

Objectives To examine the effectiveness of a “systems” approach using Lean methodology to improve surgical care, as part of a programme of studies investigating possible synergy between improvement approaches. Setting A controlled before-after study using the orthopaedic trauma theatre of a...