Abstract Background: Companies are under pressure to do more with less and at the same time they are affected by market needs such as customer demand, being sustainable and innovative in order to survive in the competitive market. There is a need to work with continuous improvements of the company performance considering the social, economic and environmental aspect. Research has shown that there is a relationship between lean management and corporate sustainability. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand to what extent the concepts of lean and sustainability are implemented in a startup and how they relate to each other. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method with focus on the theory, which gave this thesis a deductive character. We wanted to develop a deeper understanding of how and when a startup can apply a lean method and how it can be sustainable. We applied a case study research method and the qualitative data was collected by conducting a document analysis with coding. Conclusion: The results show that the concepts of lean and sustainability are intertwined and that they can and should be considered in a startup - aiming to build a business model, responding to stakeholder demand, and improving the corporate sustainability performance.

Atliktas tyrimas, vertinant veiklas pagal aštuonias didžiasiąs nuostolių rūšis.Vyraujančios veiklos nuostolių rūšys, vertinant pagal LEAN metodą, perprodukcija ir biurokratizmas. Perprodukcijos problemos – gydymo procese per mažai atsižvelgiama į konkrečią situaciją ir individualius paciento poreikius, būdinga per didelio darbo krūvio, streso ir nuovargio problema. Biurokratizmo problema – didelis papildomų medicininės dokumentacijos kiekis ir nepakankama dokumentų pildymo kokybė (nereikalingų dokumentų formų pildymas, nenaudojamos informacijos apie pacientą rinkimas, klaidingai užpildyti dokumentai). / The aim of the work is to evaluate health care quality by LEAN method in the specialized hospital from doctors and nurses’ attitude. The methodology of the research. The research was carried out from July to October, 2013. A onetime anonymous questionnaire was engaged to survey the attitude of doctors and nurses working in the Infectious Diseases and Tuberculosis Hospital (n = 222, response rate 93.2 %). The results of the survey were analysed using SPSS 17.0 statistical data analysis software and Excel software. Statistical significance of the data was verified by criterion x2, the number of the degrees of freedom and statistical significance (p). Results. The research was carried out evaluating the activities by 8 biggest kinds of losses. The results of overproduction losses have shown that 71 per cent of the respondents are of the opinion that operational activities include the excess of medical research. 90 per cent of the respondents admit feeling tiredness, and 83 per cent agree that excessive workload reduces health care quality. 87 per cent of the respondents indicate that their work is dominated by routine actions. 15 per cent state that motivation to work in their institution is sufficient while the rest part note that it is insufficient. 36 per cent of the respondents experience illegal patients’ requirements, and 14 per cent of them have to deal with illegal managers’ requirements. Due to this reason, the staff feel psychological pressure which increases stress... [to full text]