RESUMO
The supply center of the Atsumi Hospital handles medicines, medical supplies, slips, stationery, daily necessities, resterilized things, laundries, linen and washing beds among many others. The center is striving to raise the efficiency of the flow of materials within the hospital and undertakes logistics management single-handed. In January 2003, one copier and one lithographic unit out of the total four duplicating and printing machines in the hospital were removed to the suppy center. Since then, the center has been responsible for handling these machines for individual users. How effective this office meanagement system was in saving time, cutting down on costs and increasing the degree of satisfaction felt by employees was examined as part of TQM activities.Between June 2003, when the advance booking system was adopted for the use of the two machines, and January 2004, it was found that the monthly reservation ratio averaged out 38.3%. A questionnaire survey also found that many menbers of the staff were satisfied as they could make good use of time. As regards cost reduction, the monthly rental for the copying machine was curtailed to ¥57,000. This was made possible as members of the supply center made proper use of the copier and lithography.