O papel do Lean Thinking nos serviços

: retalho e saúde

Abstract

Organizations have been demonstrating the need to grow and differentiate themselves in the market where they operate because, over the years, they have been facing an increasing competitiveness, and above all, the change in consumer’s behavior, which is increasingly demanding. Therefore, and in order to be able to stand out from other companies, as well as to meet the needs and expectations of customers, they have to outline and adopt new strategies, namely, methods of continuous improvement, such as «lean». The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the motivations that led service organizations to implement the thought of continuous improvement in their day-to-day life, concerning the context of health and retail services and to understand the impact that their application has on business structures, through the use and implementation of a diverse set of «lean» tools. In order to determine the drivers and the results of this implementation a systematic review of the literature which allows a critical analysis regarding the comparison of the various existing studies on this methodology, including the investigation of some case studies that allowed to understand the improvements that can be achieved in the application of this technique in the real scope of a company, was carried out. Finally, we conclude that the «lean» methodology brings benefits concerning functionality of health services and retail stores in a concrete way, by reducing waiting times, reducing stock ruptures, improving the efficiency of workspaces, in the effective replacement of products, in the distance travelled by the costumer / patient which becomes smaller, thus being possible to optimize the service / experience of consumers.

Date of Award	24 Mar 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Jorge Julião (Supervisor)