Content uploaded by Cristina Dragomir
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Cristina Dragomir on Mar 25, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
Constanta Maritime University’s Annals Year XIII, Vol.18
IMPLEMENTING LEAN IN A HIGHER EDUCATION UNIVERSITY
Cristina Dragomir, Felicia Surugiu
Constanta Maritime University
ABSTRACT
Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources, by minimizing waste. Although traditionally
this concept is applied in manufacturing, the Lean management improvement principles can be also applied in the case
of educational institutions. This paper presents three case studies of implementing Lean in UK and USA universities
that can be useful examples for implementing Lean in any university environment.
Keywords: Lean, Lean management, Lean thinking
1. INTRODUCTION
Lean thinking is a new paradigm that has become
the foundation for continuous process improvement and
excellence in manufacturing and service organizations
around the world. Lean is focused on creating value
through relentless elimination of waste [1].
A lean organization understands customer value and
focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The
ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer
through a perfect value creation process that has zero
waste.
To accomplish this, lean thinking changes the focus
of management from optimizing separate technologies,
assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of
products and services through entire value streams that
flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and
departments to customers.
Eliminating waste along entire value streams,
instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need
less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time
to make products and services at far less costs and with
much fewer defects, compared with traditional business
systems. Companies are able to respond to changing
customer desires with high variety, high quality, low
cost, and with very fast throughput times. Also,
information management becomes much simpler and
more accurate.
A popular misconception is that lean is suited only
for manufacturing. Lean applies in every business and
every process, and in this paper we will reffer to lean
applied in the academia. It is not a tactic or a cost
reduction program, but a way of thinking and acting for
an entire organization.Businesses in all industries and
services, including healthcare and governments, are
using lean principles as the way they think and do [2].
In any business there are three types of activities:
1. activities that add value, are those activities
which, from the point of view of the customer, make a
product or service more valuable;
2. necessary activities that do not add value. In
terms of the customer, such activities don’t make a
product or service more valuable, but from the point of
view of the supplier such activities can not be
eliminated;
3. unnecessary activities that do not add value are
those activities that can be eliminated.
Lean concept refers to the effective management of
an organization’s production processes by eliminating
waste, ie processes that do not add value and are not
required.
The focus of Lean based management is on value,
customer, efficiency and effectiveness, as well as
savings, sustainability and increasing performance.
There are more steps to implement Lean in an
organization including creating Value Stream Maps.
Firstly, a current Value Stream Map is identified. That
means designing a chart that includes all the necessary
steps to go from receiving an order from a customer to
the delivery of the required product. After that is drawn a
future Value Stream Map, including opportunities for
improvement identified through analysis of the current
map. This step of implementing Lean, among other
steps, is referred to in the following case-studies.
Lean reference list consist in works of James P.
Womack and Daniel T. Jones (Lean Thinking), which is
one of the earliest books describing Lean philosophy,
Taiichi Ohno (The Toyota Production System: Beyond
Large-Scale Production), Jefrey Liker (The Toyota Way),
Mike Rother and John Shook (Learning to See - Value
Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate Muda) and
others like Don Tapping, Tom Luyster and Tom Shuker,
Kevin J. Duggan or Kenneth Dailey.
Lean thinking is a relatively new concept in
Romanian management literature, though there are
several national authors that offer a personal perspective
on Lean[3].
2. MODELS OF LEAN IMPLEMENTATION IN A
HIGHER EDUCATION ORGANISATION
The following case study presents how Lean, a
technique traditionally used only in the manufacturing
business, is tailored to the particularities of the higher
education processes and is implemented in an USA
university.
Constanta Maritime University’s Annals Year XIII, Vol.18
2.1 The four-step model of Lean implementation at
University of Central Oklahoma
The University of Central Oklahoma, located in
Edmond, Oklahoma, has embraced the concept of Lean
Thinking and was transformed in a Lean University due
to several reasons: budget reduction, insufficient funding
to cover mandatory cost increases, outdated
administrative process, employee job dissatisfaction and
low productivity levels. Lean Thinking was initially
focusing on Administration processes but later expanded
to other divisions. The primary focus of Lean
implementation was to identify and eliminate waste from
the product or service provided. Lean Thinking
methodology was introduced through a comprehensive
employee training program.
Before implementing Lean, the university had
overworked limited staff with deteriorating morale. The
administrative process was not customer service focused.
In order to analyze the situation, the surveys made on
focus groups concluded that the majority of issues were
complaints based on non-value-added activities.
Training was provided to all administrative staff to
create both a common understanding and cooperation for
the Lean effort. Each administrative staff member
attended a one-day introductory Lean class.
The model used to implement the Lean
University™ at the University of Central Oklahoma is a
4-step model that has been proven effective in other
types of organizations
Step 1: Identify the Opportunities - Complete an
organization-wide diagnostic search for issues, problems
and opportunities.
Step 2: Solution Design - Create a draft for success
that involves all employees: training, mapping, and
planning.
Step 3: Implementation – Use kaizen events, core
teams, and metrics to implement and illustrate change.
Step 4: Continuous Improvement – Monitor
performance after projects are completed.
For the first processes, the University outsourced
the facilitator role to a Lean specialized consultation
company. A Process Improvement office with a manager
overseeing Lean processes has been added, which
provided closer oversight of past Lean processes and the
scheduling of future Lean initiatives.
Implementation of Lean started in holding
informational meetings attended by all administrative
support staff to provide a brief overview of Lean
advantages and to explain the steps required to achieve
the cultural change.
In step one was established a priority list based on
the campus-wide surveys, acknowledging issues,
opportunities and areas where immediate action was
necessary to improve customer service.
In step two was offered Lean training and a Value
Stream Mapping workshop to all administrative support
staff. The training was focused on how can Lean be used
in administrative, service and support type processes and
at the workshop participants created a current state map
and a future state map with priority changes, in order to
visually illustrate the process.
In step three departments implemented changes in
their process based on the maps made at step two. As the
changes were implemented, the employees within the
process were explained those changes and the changes’
effects.
Step four is still running and consists in looking for
continuous ways to improve the work process and
eliminate waste.
The overall impact of implementing Lean at the
University of Central Oklahoma was the cultural concept
that positive change can and does occur. Employees have
realized that they have been empowered to make
improvements that help the financial position of the
university and that reduced their frustration and
increased their productivity. Beside this benefit, though
the effort was focused on improving customer service,
there have been multiple instances of cost savings
through project work (e.g. reduce annual paper costs).
The activity of Purchasing Department was streamlined
by changing the flow of processing purchase orders from
a batch and queue methodology to synchronous flow.
Also was improved student satisfaction regarding the
improved services offered [4].
2.2 Analysis of Lean implementation in UK business
schools and universities
The second case study presents the analysis of Lean
implementation in UK business schools and universities
made by AtoZ Business Consultancy [5]. The study
included a combination of Russell Group and non
Russell Group research and teaching intensive
organisations. The Russell Group represents an
association of 24 major research-intensive universities of
the UK. In 2010-2011, the Russell Group universities
accounted for 72% of UK universities’ research grant
and contract income and 61% of all doctorates awarded
in the UK [6].
The context of Lean implementation in the studied
educational organisations consisted in government
budget cuts and increased student fees. Implementing
Lean had significant impacts like improving the culture
of change, revising processes and practices and staff
improvements concerning their work. Some of the main
conclusions of the study are the following:
- Lean implementation in Higher Education is at a
beginning stage and there is place for improvements;
- There are no “outsanding” examples of Lean
implementation, but there are cases of good examples to
follow;
- Limited understanding of Lean key principles
- Focus on project based activities around few
processes which are redesigned and then not always re-
visited or monitored;
- Revised processes were one of the key successes
of the Lean programmes, which would be sustained even
if the Lean programme ended;
- There is the need to better understand customers
and processes, in order to sustain Lean improvements
over the longer term;
- There is scope for a better understanding of end-
to-end processes to ensure that Lean was not seen only in
Constanta Maritime University’s Annals Year XIII, Vol.18
terms of process-focused change but more in terms of a
culture change in behaviours and attitudes;
- All organisations should consider developing
internal capability in order to create sustainability;
-Managers should learn how how to challenge
positively to further support a culture of continuous
improvement.
2.3. Implementing Lean at the University of Minnesota
At University of Minnesota from the United States
a five-step Lean implementation methodology was
addopted.
Step one consisted in finding early adopters from
nonacademic departments who have an initial interest or
need to improve their processes.
Step two refered to establishing training materials
that internalize lean principles to enable the organization
better understanding Lean without defensiveness.
Training materials included examples of lean
applications in a university environment.
In step three was created a central improvement
office that supports departmental leaders in their efforts
to launch continuous improvement activities. The office
has a strategic role in fostering replication throughout the
university.
In step four were established three demonstration
events scheduled six weeks apart. It was used a seasoned
lean facilitator experienced in transactional process
improvement for the initial demonstration events. The
department head has to assign a continuous improvement
(CI) coordinator to work with the seasoned lean
facilitator, in order to assure that the event logistics run
smoothly and all pre-event and post-event activities are
completed.
Step five consisted in extending the effort of Lean
implementation to other university areas after the first
event was successfully completed and after were
identified additional university departments that showed
an interest in starting a lean initiative.
Once the early Lean adopters from the Minnesota
university were identified and trained it is critical to
monitor current implementation plans and encourage the
next wave to learn the benefits of participating in these
type of events.
The first and most important method is to
communicate the results far and wide to many
departments.
The University of Minnesota has an office of
service and continuous improvement (OSCI), which
operates as an internal consulting group to enhance
service, value and efficiency at the university. OSCI has
put together a lean user group that meets monthly on
campus. This has provided a valuable way for people to
come together and learn and share their experiences.
OSCI also publish a quarterly newsletter to highlight the
good work being done and the publication is
disseminated to a large number individuals throughout
the university.
Also, the university organize an annual quality fair
useful for knowledge sharing and cross-unit
collaboration that features more than 35 posters and
breakouts sessions and attracts more than 1,000
attendees from across the university system. Staff and
students from the universities, public sector and private
enterprise are invited to attend this event of networking,
poster sessions and collaboration in an effort to discover
ways to innovate and improve [7].
3. ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENTED CASE-
STUDIES AND CONCLUSIONS
In this paper were presented three case studies of
implementing Lean in UK and USA higher education
universities. Going through these case-studies are
identified several particularities for Lean implementation
in the educational environment.
First of all, the common driver for implementing
Lean is the moment when a crisis or an event that change
the normal order of things occurs. In two of the case-
studies presented, the crisis moment started once with
the budget reduction. From this point of view, Lean
implementation can be perceived as a attitude of
response for the current crisis. But there should be taken
into account that people have a natural attitude of people
of resistance at change and this situation must be treated
with great care. Leaders of departments must understand
very well the benefits of Lean implementation and the
steps of the implementation process in order to further
communicate them to their subordinates.
Lean is a long-term customer oriented initiative of
improvement and improvement ways must be found
continuously.
A facilitator is needed to assure the right
implementation of Lean. The facilitator can be a Lean
consulting company, like in the case of Oklahoma
University or a leader with experience in implementing
Lean in other universities or similar organisations.
Revised processes are one of the key successes of
Lean implementation and should be sustained even if the
Lean programme ends.
An office of Process Improvement (Oklahoma case)
or an Office of Service and Continuous Improvement
(Minnesota case) must be added, with a manager
overseeing Lean processes and responsible persons who
analyze the completed Lean processes and who check
up and observe the running Lean improvements. Such
office should play the role of catalyst for Lean
implementation and sustainable improvement and also
should collaborate with other universities or similar
organisations units to identify sustainable improvements
examples.
The good examples with results of implementing
Lean, along with Lean benefits must be communicated
to all departments of the university.
In conclusion, there are many improvement
opportunities that justify Lean implementation in
universities. Problems may appear in understanding the
need of Lean, as humans in general are reluctant to
change, but good follow-up examples like the ones
provided above help in establishing an adequate strategy
that can contribute to the success of Lean
implementation.
4. REFERENCES
Constanta Maritime University’s Annals Year XIII, Vol.18
[1] http://www.csom.umn.edu/executive-education/lean-
toolkit-A3.html
[2] http://www.lean.org/whatslean/
[3] STANCA, C., Implementation of Quality
Management Systems in Romanian Maritime Education
and Training, Third General Assembly of The
International Association of Maritime Universities,
September 23-26, Rockport, Maine, United States of
America, 2002
[4] MOORE, M., NASH, M., HENDERSON, K.,
Becoming a Lean University, University of Central
Oklahoma, 2007, available at
http://www.sacubo.org/docs/bestpractices/2007/UnivofC
entralOkla-LeanUniversity.pdf, accessed at 10.12.2012
[5] RADNOR, Z, BUCCI, G., Analysis of Lean
Implementation in UK Business Schools and
Universities, AtoZ Business Consultancy, 2011
[6] http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/home/
[7] SALEWSKI, A., KLEIN, V., How to Launch Lean in
a University, 2009 available at
http://asq.org/edu/2009/06/baldrige-national-quality-
program/how-to-launch-lean-in-a-university.pdf
accessed at 12.12.2012
