Jenei István

István Jenei: Lean transformation of hospital processes – Structuring foreign and Hungarian experiences,
PhD Dissertation, Corvinus University of Budapest, Doctoral School in Business Administration
3. Methodological tools and the
framework of the research
This chapter reviews the research methodology and the development of the code
system which was used as a framework for the analysis of the cases. Finally, it presents
the elements of the code system in detail.
3.1. Definition of the research objective and
methodology
The section begins with an explanation of why the synthesis of previous
experience was chosen as research topic, and then it describes the research
methodology.
3.1.1. Definition of the research objective
The research of Brandao de Souza (2009) has been unique to this day in that it
provides a systematic exposition and classification of scientific articles on Lean in
health care. He found 95 relevant articles in the technical literature accessible in the
biggest databases (closing date: August 2008; see Figure 7). As shown in the figure, the
first articles on Lean in health care appeared in the scientific reviews in 2002; then their
number rose exponentially until 2006. In 2007, it stagnated (the year 2008 was not a
complete year). The author studied the geographic origin of the articles: the great
majority originated from the US (57%); the second largest segment was that of British
publications. The number of the latter rose significantly in 2008. 29% of articles
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