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The purpose of this paper is to capture challenges faced and lessons learned when implementing Lean in higher education.

During 2010-2014, faculty, staff, and administration from three community colleges and four four-year universities attended Educational Lean workshops. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the administrators who originally sought the training opportunity or their designee who coordinated Lean events.

The paper provides insights from seven colleges and universities who have experience with implementing Lean in higher education. Organizational and personal elements are identified and discussed along with seven critical reflection questions to consider before implementing Lean.

Further research is needed to understand the role of the senior leadership team when implementing Lean as a continuous improvement strategy. This research provides some insight, but is limited to the factors identified by the seven institutions.

The findings of this study can be used to assist higher education institutions considering a Lean initiative. Critical reflection questions include: Who will oversee the Lean initiative? How will human and financial resources be allocated? When and how will professional development opportunities be offered for senior leaders, facilitators, and employees? How will facilitators continue to develop their skills? How will projects be selected? How will Lean thinking be introduced into academic departments?

This provides original research in the area of implementing Lean in higher education and its concurrent challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of higher education employees to the change with Lean at public universities in Morocco in order to determinate the factors of resistance to change and to look for the motivating factors that encourage these employees to participate in change project with Lean.

A questionnaire sent to all administrative and technical staff of higher education at five public universities in Morocco during year 2019. This study has analyzed both a person-oriented approach and a variable-oriented approach and characterized by using Lewin’s change model to manage change with Lean.

The results show that individual, organizational and group factors have a positive impact on employees’ attitudes toward change with Lean but individual factors are more important than other factors.

The research is limited to universities in Morocco and mainly public universities. It is only interested in the first stage in the change process with Lean (unfreezing). Understanding employee attitudes, determining motivation factors and the causes behind resistance to change before embarking in change journey with Lean Higher Education (LHE) enables the public universities in Morocco (management) to better prepare for change by reducing resistance to change to create a favorable climate to implement LHE.

The majority of research works to date focus on implementation of LHE without giving interest to the preparation of the organizational change, this last is very much requested to determine the driving and restraining forces in order to reduce the resistance to change that is the main reason of failure of many change programs. This paper attempts to determinate the factors of resistance to change which allows to the public universities in Morocco to overcome them before moving to the changing stage.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the accumulated body of research on Lean in higher education, draw conclusions to help guide successful Lean implementations and propose future research directions to establish a rich base of knowledge that informs both practice and research.

This literature review examines the academic literature regarding the use of Lean in higher education across 64 publications. EBSCO definitions were used to assess and present the synthesized results, which are detailed at the department/unit level and at the organizational level.

Overall, Lean appears to have significant and measurable value when used to improve academic and administrative operations in higher education. Such improvements are effective at the department/unit level or throughout the entire institution. However, implementing Lean within an institution is a serious undertaking that is most impactful if it involves long-term, strategic planning.

The groundwork has been established for the development of conceptual frameworks to further guide Lean initiatives in higher education. Such frameworks, together with further integration of organizational development and change management literature will define best practices when implementing Lean locally and throughout the institution.

At the time of this writing, there has been no systematic review or integration of the published literature about Lean in higher education. This review provides a highly useful starting point for researchers interested in further developing theory about quality in academic institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to present various quality constructs, their application, success and shortcomings, in higher education (HE) services.

This paper aims at reviewing the quality constructs in higher education services through a general review. The paper is organised to highlight different quality practices which higher education institutions have followed from 1990s till date. The paper is scoped to discuss about total quality management (TQM), Kaizen, Six Sigma, Lean and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) comparing their value addition and shortcoming in imbibing quality into the higher education. Publications indexed in Scopus database are considered for the review. The focus of the search in the selected publications was to identify the success and shortcomings of various quality constructs in HE services.

The requirement for a quality construct in higher education industry is an important finding of the paper. Alongside this, the reasons behind the shortcoming of quality practices used in higher education system were highlighted. The findings include the opportunities for future research for imbibing quality culture in HE.

The literature discussed in the part of the paper is restricted to TQM, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Lean and LSS. Though the usage of such quality practices in HE originated in 1990s, there is no one robust sustainable practice till date, which proved to be a pacesetter. This paper validates this assertion, which helps both academicians and practitioners with a new perspective.

This paper would serve as an excellent resource for both academicians and practitioners to understand the history of quality which contributed to the improvement in HE services, and how the quality excellence has evolved over the years. The paper concludes with a discussion on opportunities for future research to develop quality frameworks for HE services.

The purpose of this paper is to present the potent application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in higher education services and to suggest a conceptual framework of deploying LSS in the higher education institutions (HEIs).

This paper aims to outline the importance of the quality excellence criterion in general through different constructs from the literature including TQM, Lean, Six Sigma and LSS. The paper further expands on the applicability of LSS in the HEI setting, with an understanding of HEI as comparatively different from the manufacturing sector from where LSS originated. The published literature on LSS and authors’ experience in the field of LSS (as practitioners) were used as sources for devising a conceptual framework for LSS deployment in HEIs.

The key finding from the study is the confirmation of LSS applicability in HEIs. The study also confirms that LSS is not anyone’s job but a key part of leadership agenda. The six-staged conceptual framework prescribed for the HEIs as part of the paper is the key contribution of this study. The model describes that LSS readiness is the foremost step in the LSS deployment journey in HEIs. The strategic perspectives of aligning the organisational vision for quality excellence need to be achieved by establishing a need for LSS through leadership. Then, developing an LSS deployment strategy becomes the next step. Educating the appropriate stakeholders (students) and team formation becomes the next important steps in the LSS deployment. Once the above steps are implemented in right way, identifying and implementing LSS projects becomes critical. The execution and closure of the LSS projects leads to quality excellence in HEIs.

Since the framework prescribed here is a conceptual framework, it deserved a testing in the real-life context. This leaves an opportunity for future researchers to test and expand on the implications of the model. Though the LSS framework is customised for HEIs, the fundamental factors essential for any change management initiative holds correct for LSS as well, and hence these are not elaborated as part of this paper.

This paper would serve as an excellent resource for both academicians and LSS practitioners in HEIs, for deployment. The framework presented here is the original work contributed by the authors, as the first of its kind in the academic literature relevant to LSS in HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the fundamental challenges and critical success factors in the development of a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) initiative within a UK higher education institute (HEI). The paper also illustrates examples of the types of projects completed and share some of the key lessons learned as part of the LSS journey.

The authors have initially carried out an extensive literature review on the application of LSS in higher education to understand the existing body of work carried out by other scholars in the field. This is followed by presenting a case study explaining how a HEI in the UK has embarked on its LSS journey as a process excellence methodology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of core and supporting business processes.

There has been a clear lack of support and commitment from senior management in the sustainability of LSS within the case study organization. There was a general lack of understanding of the benefits of LSS in the higher education context and there is a lack of knowledge on the use of LSS tools for tackling process efficiency and effectiveness problems across the case study organization. Although a number of LSS projects were executed across finance, administrative, and human resources, as well as IT and library services, no projects were carried out for improving academic processes such as teaching effectiveness.

As the case study is limited to one higher education institution (HEI), the findings of the study cannot be broadly generalized. Moreover, the paper does not report the findings of any strategic projects as most projects were carried out at the operational level.

This is possibly one of the first studies reporting project examples of LSS in a HEI. The results of the study can also be used to benchmark with similar studies in other HEIs to understand the impact of certain management practices of LSS.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the applicability and implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). LSS is considered as the most recent service quality practice which has proved its success in manufacturing and service sectors. Though there is plenty of literature available with regard to the application and benefits of LSS in services sectors (like Banking, healthcare, information technology sectors, etc.), there is apparently no evidence in the literature about the implementation of LSS in HEIs.

A five-phased approach is followed. A multiple case-study method is used in this paper to explore this implementation of LSS in two select international University colleges. LSS toolkit comprising of define-measure-analyze-improve-control phases is used for the execution of the projects. Featuring student teams in LSS project management adds novelty to the approach.

The paper empirically validates the application of LSS in HEIs. Further, it highlights the practical challenges and benefits of LSS in the HEI setup. An in-depth empirical analysis of LSS toolkit application, LSS change management and using student teams in LSS project management are the highlights of this paper. The paper concludes that LSS is applicable and could provide positive benefits to HEIs.

LSS application in HEIs is perhaps a new research area, which is at its nascence and upcoming in the researchers’ community. Hence, this paper would serve as a platform and provide directions for future scholars to ponder on the subject.

Since the cases are executed in the real-time setup of HEIs, the paper has several practical implications. First, the academia and practitioners’ collaboration in executing projects adds novelty. Second, the involvement of student teams from project selection to execution brings in practical perspectives alongside the academic education. Several other key lessons learned and benefits of LSS in HEI setup are presented as part of the paper.

LSS has been successful in the past few decades in the manufacturing and service sectors. However, its application in HEIs was very nascent, and few researchers even doubted its relevancy of application in HEIs. This study illustrates its importance and application to the higher education sector which is a highly responsible area of the service sector, for imbibing quality excellence, serving as an excellent resource for researchers and higher education professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from the experiences and the literature on organizational change and transformation to implement and sustain Lean higher education (LHE) initiatives designed to benefit the university, its employees, and the individuals it serves.

The authors present organizational development literature and examples of success and challenges to better support the effective application of LHE.

The authors address the importance of and techniques for first, assessing and improving institutional readiness; second, enhancing leadership awareness, understanding, and support for LHE; third, strategic planning, Lean leadership, and getting help for LHE; and fourth, facilitating an institution-wide transition to LHE.

A structured, step-by-step approach offers practical guidance for implementing institution-wide Lean initiatives in HE.

The purpose of this paper is to review the historical development of Lean Six Sigma and to identify the relevant opportunities for the application of Lean Six Sigma within the university setting. The paper also discusses the challenges of Lean Six Sigma implementation in higher education, as well as the cultural changes necessary to provide an appropriate climate for its long-term success.

The paper contains a comprehensive discussion of the development of Lean Six Sigma over the past three decades. Additionally, the paper describes how Lean Six Sigma may be applied in the university setting to improve processes in curriculum delivery; business and auxiliary services; admissions and enrollment management; and research.

Lean Six Sigma can be applied to facilitate process improvements in curriculum delivery; business and auxiliary services; admissions and enrollment management; and research. While obstacles to Lean Six Sigma implementation exist, the process improvements and resulting cultural changes are worthwhile and noteworthy.

The paper serves as a guide for how Lean Six Sigma processes can be utilized in the higher education setting. Other researchers and practitioners may use the paper as a practical orientation to Lean Six Sigma in the university setting.

Due to the unique culture of higher education, the application of Lean Six Sigma to university processes has been sparse. The paper provides a needed orientation as to how Lean Six Sigma may be applied to improve some of the more important functional aspects of the university.