Problem Statement DefinitionVirginia Mason Medical Center is a medical center located in Seattle, Washington. After a period of unprofitability and declining morale among staff, they attempted to implement TQM and Six Sigma with limited results. During a chance meeting between a VMMC executive and a Boeing executive, VMMC was introduced to the Toyota Production System, TPS, which focused on eliminating waste, or the waste of overproduction, time, material, space, motion and inventory in excess. The TPS system adopted by VMMC became known as the Virginia Medical Production System, or VMPS. VMPS has proven to be very successful within VMMC, reducing costs and improving quality in many areas of its operations. They found, however, that there were still many within the organization who did not agree with the system, some based on their previous experience with TQM. Switching to a system developed for producing automobiles for use in a healthcare system became the major challenge VMMC faced. Situation Analysis In 1998 and 1999 VMMC lost money for the first time in its existence. They also faced morale problems among the staff and formidable competition from other hospitals in their area. Dr. Gary Kaplan, CEO of VMMC, was looking for a tool to implement a strategy that would address the challenges they were facing. After trying and abandoning QCM and considering Six Sigma, a chance meeting led them to the Toyota Production System, TPS, a management method focused on quality and efficiency. TPS is based on the concept of Heijunka, smoothing production to meet fluctuations in demand and eliminating unnecessary inventory. Heijunka focused on eliminating waste, as it was related to overproduction...... half of paper ......had no confidence in VMPS and thought that a system used for car production could not be used in the healthcare sector. Mistakes also still occurred, such as the mix-up of medications resulting in a catastrophe. VMMC must continue to improve its system, including further leadership development and training, aligning expectations of all staff members, holding everyone accountable, encouraging everyone to be at the forefront of quality control and to express their ideas on improving product quality. the system. The “buddy system” that was started after the mixing of the drugs is a good example of continuous improvements to their system. If VMMC continues on its path to achieving its lean management system, it will achieve its goal of becoming the leader in lean quality management that it is striving to be..