At South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Lean methodology is at the heart of continuous improvement. The Trust empowers staff to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste, and improve processes in a way that’s practical, sustainable, and focused on patient care. This approach is embedded across departments – from clinical services to training delivery – ensuring that every improvement adds value and supports staff in delivering high-quality care.
Training sessions at the Trust require a large volume of printed materials – such as the 5S game, aims statement worksheets, and SIPOC mapping tools. Preparing these resources takes up significant time, paper, and printing costs. The team aimed to reduce this burden by creating reusable, wipe-clean materials that could be recycled for future sessions.
They reviewed training delivery data from the 2022 financial year, which showed high attendance (530 people) across various courses.
This added up to 4,810 printed pages annually. By converting key resources into laminated, reusable formats, they aimed to cut down on preparation time and material costs.
Even small changes – like switching to reusable laminated materials – can lead to meaningful savings in time, money, and environmental impact. The team plans to expand this approach to leadership course handouts and other in-class resources, with results to be shared in an upcoming poster presentation.
This project shows how thoughtful resource management can improve efficiency and sustainability in training delivery. It’s a great example of South Tees staff taking initiative to streamline processes and make the most of available resources.
