Dysfunctions in procurement process according to the lean approach: case study of a university hospital centre

Purchasing within all organisations is a major issue for their overall performance.This study aims to identify the three families of waste: Muda; Muri; and Mura, through the purchasing process of the University Hospital.Indeed, the results of this study show that the bottlenecks of the purchasing process are non-performing information and communication system; excessive bureaucracy and control; and non-standardised functional organisation.These results confirm that the waste concept of lean management is applicable to the public sector, where administrative bureaucracy is the main dysfunction, which has been corroborated by the literature.