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The purpose of this paper is to systematically investigate the patient flow and waiting time problems in hospital emergency departments (EDs) from an integrated voice of customer (VOC) and voice of process (VOP) perspective and to propose a new lean framework for ED process.

A survey was conducted to better understand patients' perceptions of ED services, lean tools such as process mapping and A3 problem-solving sheets were used to identify hidden process wastes and root-cause analysis was performed to determine the reasons of long waiting time in ED.

The results indicate that long waiting times in ED are major concerns for patients and affect the quality of ED services. It was revealed that limited bed capacity, unavailability of necessary staff, layout of ED, lack of understanding among patients about the nature of emergency services are main causes of delay. Addressing these issues using lean tools, integrated with the VOC and VOP perspectives can lead to improved patient flow, higher patient satisfaction and improvement in ED capacity. A future value stream map is proposed to streamline the ED activities and minimize waiting times.

The research involves a relatively small sample from a single case study. The proposed approach will enable the ED administrators to avoid the ED overcrowding and streamline the entire ED process.

This research identified ED quality issues from the integration of VOC and VOP perspective and suggested appropriate lean tools to overcome these problems. This process improvement approach will enable the ED administrators to improve productivity and performance of hospitals.

The purpose of this study is to establish empirical relationships between patient flow problems, healthcare service quality and patient satisfaction with emergency department (ED) service factors from the patient perspective.

In the overall study, of which the current investigation is a part, a mixed-method research approach was to achieve the research objectives. The results reported in this paper are based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey where a well-designed and reliable questionnaire was used to survey ED patients. This study conducted partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) by using Smart PLS software.

Results show that the respondents mostly agreed with the proposed concept of quality in ED and patients were less satisfied with ED services in general and with the internal and external environments in ED in particular. It was found that relationships between nine identified scales of patient flow problems, healthcare service quality, and patient satisfaction are significant. The findings reveal that the relationship between patient flow problems and patient satisfaction is positively mediated through healthcare service quality, which shows the predictive capability of the model, indicating high predictive relevance.

This research involves a relatively small sample from a single case study. The positive relationship between patient flow problems and patient satisfaction indicate practical significance of the model for guiding to improve overall patient satisfaction.

This research, through the involvement of both hospital staff and the patient, brings out a holistic approach in terms of operational excellence in a critical unit such as the ED. The empirically established relationships form the benchmarking and guide for developing guidelines for designing policies for service improvements of ED practices.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to implementing lean construction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry and to prioritise the principal factors that constitute these barriers.

A literature review was initially used to reveal the global barriers to implementing lean construction. Subsequently, these barriers were incorporated into a structured questionnaire, and a convenience sample of 282 construction professionals in the KSA construction industry was surveyed. The results were analysed using mean item score (MIS), Mann–Whitney U test and principal component analysis (PCA).

The findings revealed 22 barriers to lean construction implementation in the KSA construction industry. Principal factors that constitute these barriers were found to be traditional practices, client related, technological, performance and knowledge and cost-related barriers in descending order of pervasiveness. The study also proposes solutions to overcome these principal barriers.

This study provides a global overview of the barriers to implementing lean construction. It contributes to the body of knowledge, as it uncovers for the first time the barriers to implementing lean construction in the KSA construction industry with reference to the socio-cultural, economic and operational context of the KSA. Thus, it is relevant to other countries in the Middle East because of their shared similarities to the KSA. Furthermore, the solutions proposed to overcome these barriers in the KSA construction industry can be applied in other countries where similar barriers are identified.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that illustrates the role of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in creating organisational innovation climate by investigating the relationship between LSS’s intangible impacts and organisational innovation climate factors.

A self-administrated survey questionnaire was distributed among 145 public sector officials to get their opinions on the relationship between various observable elements of LSS’s intangible impacts and organisational innovation climate factors, where a response rate of 73.8% was achieved. The collected data were demographically, descriptively and statistically analysed. Accordingly, a house-of-pillars-based framework that illustrates the role of LSS’s intangible impacts in creating innovation climate in an organisation was developed.

Results from this study indicated that LSS’s intangible impacts on organisational structure and hierarchy, culture, change adaptability, utilisation of staff and staff’s behavioural aspects are positively related to many of organisational innovation climate factors such as trust and openness, challenge and involvement, support for ideas and freedom and autonomy.

The findings of this study are based on the data collected from public sector organisations in the UAE and are supported by relevant literature. However, this study can provide useful guidance for further research for the generalisation of the results to wider scopes in terms of sectors and geographical domains.

The findings of this study will provide UAE public sector officials with a clear roadmap on how to use LSS for promoting innovation and fostering its implementation in practice. This study will also encourage professionals in public sectors to integrate LSS into their innovation strategies to enhance organisational innovativeness and improve service quality.

It is one of the first studies that explores LSS’s intangible impacts and assesses their relationship with organisational innovation climate factors. Hence, this study offers valuable insights for both academics and practitioners and is expected to lay a foundation for a better understanding of how LSS’s intangible impacts can be used in creating organisational innovation climate.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for implementing lean construction and consequently to improve performance levels in the construction industry in the context of Saudi Arabia. There is currently no framework for implementing lean construction specifically tailored to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry. Existing lean construction frameworks are focussed on other countries and are less applicable in the KSA due to differences in socio-cultural and operational contexts.

This study employs the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique for data collection and analysis. First, following a survey of 282 construction professionals, 12 critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing lean construction in the KSA construction industry were identified by Sarhan et al. (2016). Second, 16 of these professionals who have 15 years or more experience were exclusively selected to examine the contextual relationship among the 12 CSFs. A row and column questionnaire was used for a pairwise comparison of the CSFs. A matrix of cross-impact multiplications (MICMAC) was applied to analyse the questionnaire data to develop an ISM model that can serve as a framework for implementing lean construction. Third, the framework was subjected to further validation by interviewing five experts to check for conceptual inconsistencies and to confirm the applicability of the framework in the context of the KSA construction industry.

The findings reveal that the CSFs are divided into four clusters: autonomous, linkage, dependent and driving clusters. Additionally, the findings reveal seven hierarchies of inter-relationships among the CSFs. The order of practical application of the CSFs descends from the seventh hierarchy to the first hierarchy.

The new framework is a significant advancement over existing lean construction frameworks as it employs an ISM technique to specify the hierarchical relationships among the different factors that contribute to the successful implementation of lean construction. The primary value of this study is the development of a new framework that reflects the socio-cultural and operational contexts in the KSA construction industry and can guide the successful implementation of lean construction. Therefore, construction industry operators such as contractors, consultants, government departments and professionals can rely on the framework to implement lean construction more effectively and successfully.

This exploratory study aims to investigate relationships of current manufacturing practices and their performance with the size of the manufacturing organizations. The study also seeks to identify the practices that significantly influence their manufacturing performance.

Relationships of current manufacturing practices and their performance are investigated using established scales including competitive advantage, quality and reliability practices, advanced quality practices, supplier relationship, field data and information exchange, product data management, manufacturing performance. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and regression model were used in order to fulfil the objectives of the study. The survey was administered to top managers across the manufacturing industry.

The results of the study indicate that there are significant differences in the strategic approach of small and medium (SMI) and large industries (LI). In terms of manufacturing performances, SMIs are marginally ahead of large industries (LIs). SMIs consider product quality and reliability as a basic competitive advantage, while LIs consider company reputation as the import competitive dimension.

Possibility of method variance or response biases are limitations of this study, as all data are drawn from employee surveys, and there is some selection bias, as it was not possible to directly compare respondents with non‐respondents.

This study makes a significant contribution to the manufacturing practices and performance literature by providing further statistically significant evidence of the relationships of current practices and performance across the size of industries.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective methodology for implementing lean manufacturing strategies and a leanness evaluation metric using continuous performance measurement (CPM).

Based on five lean principles, a systematic lean implementation methodology for manufacturing organizations has been proposed. A simplified leanness evaluation metric consisting of both efficiency and effectiveness attributes of manufacturing performance has been developed for continuous evaluation of lean implementation. A case study to validate the proposed methodology has been conducted and proposed CPM metric has been used to assess the manufacturing leanness.

Proposed methodology is able to systematically identify manufacturing wastes, select appropriate lean tools, identify relevant performance indicators, achieve significant performance improvement and establish lean culture in the organization. Continuous performance measurement matrices in terms of efficiency and effectiveness are proved to be appropriate methods for continuous evaluation of lean performance.

Effectiveness of the method developed has been demonstrated by applying it in a real life assembly process. However, more tests/applications will be necessary to generalize the findings.

Results show that applying the methods developed, managers can successfully identify and remove manufacturing wastes from their production processes. By improving process efficiency, they can optimize their resource allocations. Manufacturers now have a validated step by step methodology for successfully implementing lean strategies.

According to the authors' best knowledge, this is the first known study that proposed a systematic lean implementation methodology based on lean principles and continuous improvement techniques. Evaluation of performance improvement by lean strategies is a critical issue. This study develops a simplified leanness evaluation metric considering both efficiency and effectiveness attributes and integrates it with the lean implementation methodology.

The aims of this paper are: to investigate the perceptions held by police (insiders) and community member (outsiders) of the recruitment and retention of culturally and linguistically diverse employees of Victoria Police; and, to develop a model that can assist in future recruitment and retention policy development.

Structured focus group interviews were conducted based on an instrument deduced from existing literature. Police and community members were interviewed separate cohorts. The discussions were thematically coded to themes and sub‐themes.

Specific differences were identified in perceptions of the importance of recruiting culturally and linguistically diverse groups, barriers to recruitment, recruitment methods, and retention methods.

Based on these perceptions, a proposed a model addresses the importance of cultural diversity in policing and barriers to recruitment and retention of culturally and linguistically diverse employees. Further research is necessary to assess the broader applicability of this model.

The proposed model may be used as the basis for future recruitment and retention activities, and human resource management policy development.

This is the first study in the Australian context of recruitment and retention of culturally and linguistically diverse police that addresses both community and police perspectives. Aligning the demographic profile of the police service with that of the community is beneficial to effective policing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between demographics and an employee's understanding of and support for the recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups in a policing context. Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐method research approach was adopted where a postal survey, comprised of both closed and open questions, was distributed to 500 Victoria Police employees and yielded a response rate of 19.5 per cent.

The findings show that gender and higher education have significant relationships to understanding CALD and lead to significant support for the recruitment of CALD employees. Results show that the instrument utilized in this study was highly reliable with a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.802. Alpha values for “understanding” and “support” were 0.813 and 0.788, respectively. Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this study is that the findings are based on a pilot study with 97 responses.

The utility of the conceptual model generated in this study has practical implications and value as it is being implemented to assist Victoria Police in designing CALD policies, procedures and practices.

The paper proposes an empirical model showing demographics as critical determinants in understanding and support for CALD recruitment and retention in Policing. Furthermore, the conceptual model makes a significant contribution to the literature and advances Morris et al.'s model.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss new product development (NPD) based on a traditional stage-gate process and to examine how NPD tools, such as Lean design for Six Sigma, can accelerate the achievement of the main goals of NPD: reliable product quality, cost-effective implementation, and desired time-to-market. These new tools must be incorporated into a new approach to NPD based on the Advanced Product and Quality Planning methodology.

This research paper is based on the theoretical background presented in peer-reviewed scientific research papers during the period 1990-2012. In the second section of this study, the author provides examples of the proposed tools and of advanced techniques to show evidence that validates the hypothesis.

This study presented the theoretical background on the NPD process and related functions in today’s organizations as it relates to competition. NPD was identified as one of the top priorities of every firm, which is why the NPD process must be optimized and oriented toward customers to ensure the quality and reliability of products while minimizing manufacturing costs. The effect on timing and cost is greatly appreciated by top management, and it is well known throughout the firm when a strong, reliable product is launched that it is flawless.

To fully deploy all NPD tools requires basic steps such as the following: marketing and planning, design, process, product process validation and the integration of operations from a concurrent engineering standpoint.

This research paper provides step by step guidance in order to apply Lean Sigma tool in NPD process in order to achieve Six Sigma quality level in manufacturing.

Promoting the practice of Lean design for Six Sigma and its tool enables firms to increase their competitiveness since they will make more reliable products delivered to its consumers.

The approach of this research paper combines proven statistical tools to be applied in an original sequence in order to design robust product to match manufacturing capabilities.