IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijppmp/v61y2012i8p940-948.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lean Six Sigma for higher education institutions (HEIs)

Author

Listed:
  • Jiju Antony
  • Netasha Krishan
  • Donna Cullen
  • Maneesh Kumar

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate whether Lean Six Sigma (LSS) can be a powerful business improvement methodology for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of higher education institutions (HEIs). The paper will also explore the fundamental challenges, barriers and critical success factors for the introduction and development of LSS in the HE context. The last part of the paper is to understand the role of tools and techniques for the sustainability of this initiative for making the HEIs more efficient and effective. Design/methodology/approach - The paper discusses whether LSS can be a useful and systematic approach to tackle operational and strategic issues within the HE industry. The authors use secondary data from literature to justify the need for this powerful approach and the benefits of adopting this business process improvement strategy within the HEIs. Findings - The paper presents the challenges and barriers to be encountered during the introduction of LSS in the higher education sector, most useful tools and techniques for process improvement problems, success factors which are essential for the implementation and sustainability of LSS. Research limitations/implications - This is a very theoretical paper based on the existing literature and authors’ experiences in the HE sector. The next stage of the research is to carry out empirical studies in a number of HEIs and develop a practical and useful roadmap for the implementation and sustainability of LSS as a business process improvement methodology. Originality/value - This paper makes an attempt to remove the myth that LSS is confined to manufacturing. It also demonstrates, through relevant existing literature and authors’ experiences, that LSS is equally applicable to public sector organisations and in particular HEIs. Although lean has been adopted by a few HEIs in the UK and abroad, very few HEIs have adopted the integrated LSS approach for waste reduction and variability reduction, which leads to superior performance and enhanced student satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiju Antony & Netasha Krishan & Donna Cullen & Maneesh Kumar, 2012. "Lean Six Sigma for higher education institutions (HEIs)," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 61(8), pages 940-948, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijppmp:v:61:y:2012:i:8:p:940-948
    DOI: 10.1108/17410401211277165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17410401211277165/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17410401211277165/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/17410401211277165?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiju Antony & Maneesh Kumar, 2012. "Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies in NHS Scotland: An Empirical Study and Directions for Future Research," Quality Innovation Prosperity, Technical University of Košice, Department of integrated management, vol. 16(2).
    2. Bandar Alzahrani & Haitham Bahaitham & Murad Andejany & Ahmad Elshennawy, 2021. "How Ready Is Higher Education for Quality 4.0 Transformation according to the LNS Research Framework?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-29, May.
    3. Andreas Kakouris & Eleni Sfakianaki & Marios Tsioufis, 2022. "Lean thinking in lean times for education," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(1), pages 657-697, September.
    4. Marco Maciel-Monteon & Jorge Limon-Romero & Carlos Gastelum-Acosta & Yolanda Baez-Lopez & Diego Tlapa & Manuel Iván Rodríguez Borbón, 2020. "Improvement project in higher education institutions: A BPEP-based model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Daniel Dasig Jr, 2017. "A frontier in organizational and business process innovation in service management through lean six sigma Kaizen project implementation," Journal of Administrative and Business Studies, Professor Dr. Usman Raja, vol. 3(6), pages 263-283.
    6. Yilmaz, Aysegul & Dora, Manoj & Hezarkhani, Behzad & Kumar, Maneesh, 2022. "Lean and industry 4.0: Mapping determinants and barriers from a social, environmental, and operational perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Ioana CALINESCU & Georgiana COSTACHE & Corina FRASINEANU, 2018. "Quality Management In The Romanian Upper Secondary Education: A Different Internal And External Perspective," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(1), pages 957-967, November.
    8. Lukrafka, Tatiany Oleques & Silva, Diego Souza & Echeveste, Marcia, 2020. "A geographic picture of Lean adoption in the public sector: Cases, approaches, and a refreshed agenda," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 506-517.
    9. Amrik Sohal & Tharaka Vass & Tristan Vasquez & Greg J. Bamber & Timothy Bartram & Pauline Stanton, 2022. "Success factors for lean six sigma projects in healthcare," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 215-240, June.
    10. Jorge L. García-Alcaraz & Liliana Avelar-Sosa & Juan I. Latorre-Biel & Emilio Jiménez-Macías & Giner Alor-Hernández, 2017. "Role of Human Knowledge and Communication on Operational Benefits Gained from Six Sigma," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Falah Abu & Hamed Gholami & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Norhayati Zakuan & Dalia Streimikiene & Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos, 2021. "An SEM Approach for the Barrier Analysis in Lean Implementation in Manufacturing Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ijppmp:v:61:y:2012:i:8:p:940-948. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.