Every patient should be enabled to stop the line

When Taiichi Ohno introduced 'Stop the Line' manufacturing, people were sceptical.1 2 Each assembly line worker was entrusted with the responsibility to push a red button to stop the line if she/he noticed something wrong. The idea was to catch problems early, before they got out of control. But the approach seemed at odds with production goals, namely keeping assembly lines running at full speed. Why not have managers, more trained in production, oversee the line and make fewer stops? Ohno's idea seemed too risky to some managers, who resisted. Indeed, managers who implemented Stop the Line experienced a productivity drop. Investigating and fixing problems took time. But soon, things flipped. The teams using Stop the Line were faster and more reliable than those that did not and Stop the Line manufacturing became a standard Toyota approach.

When patients enter the hospital, they entrust clinicians...

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