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The aim of this paper is to compare the use of critical incident technique (CIT) for gathering student feedback in higher education (HE) with the more traditional and commonly used questionnaire survey method.

The investigation involved a critical evaluation of the standard self‐completion, multi‐question “tick‐box” quantitative survey questionnaire traditionally employed to collect student feedback in HE, against the more qualitative critical incident technique that was tested within the HE context. This evaluation was supported by a review of the extant literature to determine the advantages and disadvantages of both feedback methods and a comparison of the data gathered from university students using both survey instruments. Conclusions were then drawn regarding the value of both methods. The criteria used for the comparison were the design and administration of the survey instruments, analysis and quality of the data collected, and finally, the potential usefulness of the data to HE managers.

The main issue regarding suitability of approach is resource utilisation. The CIT questionnaire is much quicker and easier to design than the traditional questionnaire, asking only a small number of questions. However, completion, input and analysis of the CIT questionnaire take longer than the standard tick‐box questionnaire. The richness of the data more than compensates for these drawbacks. In principle, the qualitative critical incident technique should be used to complement the existing methods of gathering student feedback in order to find out what is significant to students. However, in practice, it is more likely that managers within HE will continue to use the more traditional survey questionnaire, because of the limited resources available to them.

Not only is CIT a method that can be used by researchers in the education sector nationally and internationally, to gather rich and useful data about the student experience but it may also be useful for gathering information from other stakeholders.

The paper is the first to use CIT to gather feedback from students on their university experience. It proposes that, in order to obtain valid and reliable data on which to base service provision decisions, university management should consider using this qualitative technique in combination with more traditional quantitative methods of gathering student feedback.

COVID-19 has changed life as we know. Data are scarce and necessary for making decisions on fighting COVID-19. The purpose of this paper is to apply Six Sigma techniques on the current COVID-19 pandemic to distinguish between special cause and common cause variation. In the DMAIC structure, different approaches applied in three countries are compared.

For three countries the mortality is compared to the population to distinguish between special cause variation and common cause variation. This variation and the patterns in it are assessed to the countries' different approaches to COVID-19.

In the DMAIC problem-solving approach, patterns in the data are distinguished. The special cause variation is assessed to the special causes and approaches. The moment on which measures were taken has been essential, as well as policies on testing and distancing.

Cross-national data comparisons are a challenge as countries have different moments on which they register data on their population. Furthermore, different intervals are taken, varying from registering weekly to registering yearly. For the research, three countries with similar data registration and different approaches in fighting COVID-19 were taken.

This is the first study with Master Black Belts from different countries on the application of Six Sigma techniques and the DMAIC from the viewpoint of special cause variation on COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to report how a small, family‐owned children's play centre can achieve competitive advantage by developing a differentiated service. The aim is to show how this differentiation strategy is operationalized in a small family business using safety critical and work critical regulatory practices, and to examine their impact on operations and customers.

A case study approach was taken, collecting data through observation over a 24‐month period from design, through construction, to the first 18 months of operations. A survey of customers was undertaken after the centre had been open for 12 months.

From startup in 2005, the centre has attracted between 1,500 and 2,000 children per week. It charges premium admission prices (twice those of competitors) and also charges for accompanying adults. Customers travel up to 20 miles to the centre, extremely high customer satisfaction levels are achieved, over 99 per cent of customers would recommend the centre to others and repeat visits are the norm.

The research covers a single case and therefore is only generalisable back to theory rather than to the population of free‐standing children's soft play area businesses.

When organizations within a particular industry sector operate within the confines of that industry's legal requirements, it is the voluntary practices that are likely to lead to differentiation of the service.

The paper provides a detailed case study on how a small family business achieves competitive advantage by utilising safety critical and work critical practices to strategically differentiate its service offering.

Existing studies suggested that there is a nonlinear relationship between lean production adoption and organizational performance. Lean production adoption is a gradual process, and the application status of lean tools will affect enterprise performance. The existing literature has insufficiently explored the nonlinear relationship of the lean tools application status on operational performance and environmental performance using the same theoretical framework. A combination approach of interpretative structural modeling (ISM) and Bayesian networks was proposed in this paper, which was used to analyze the complex relationship between lean tools application status with operational and environmental performance.

ISM was used to analyze the inter-relationship of 17 lean tools identified from the lean literature and construct the lean tools structure model providing reference for building Bayesian network. By calculating the prior and conditional probabilities within the lean tools and between the lean tools with the operational and environmental performance, a Bayesian simulation model was constructed and used to analyze the performance outcomes under different lean tools application status.

The performance simulation result – representing by the probability of three performance levels as good, average and poor – shows inconsistent changes with the changing of lean tools application status. By comparing the changes of operational performance and environmental performance, it can be found that environmental performance is less sensitive to the change of lean tools application status than operational performance.

Using the integrated ISM–Bayesian network approach, the results indicated a nonlinear relationship between lean tools with operational and environmental performance and provided a reference for the exploration of the nonlinear relationship between lean tools and performance. This research further calls for exploring the S-curve relationship between lean tools and environmental performance.

The purpose of this article was to evaluate the causal influence of Lean management practices on knowledge waste within the context of higher education institutions (HEIs). The peculiarities of knowledge impress upon organizations the need to think about reducing knowledge waste as a crucial practice. The Lean philosophy and practices therefore stand out as an appropriate management perspective, particularly given Lean's focus on waste elimination. However, little is known about the influence of Lean practices on reducing knowledge waste.

A quantitative research instrument was distributed to professors and technical and administrative staff across three types of HEI in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The validated and pretested survey was circulated to the target population via an online method to explore eight constructs and 38 items concerning Lean and knowledge and waste.

The results of the survey indicated that all hypotheses were supported. The sum total of 837 responses showed that the Lean relationships (internal organizational paths) were more obvious where leadership support proved to have a positive effect on continuous improvement, training, and customer involvement. Moreover, the significant and negative effects of the Lean practices studied on knowledge waste was also supported, including for example, the interaction between HEIs and its client base.

HEIs are knowledge generators. Therefore, the necessity of avoiding and reducing knowledge waste is even greater. This study also differentiates itself from the “traditional” knowledge loss studies by investigating knowledge while the employees are still part of an organization and not after they have left taking the knowledge away with them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

Quality 4.0 is concerned with managing quality in the Industry 4.0 era. Specifically, its focus is on which digital tools are used to enhance an organization’s ability to reliably give customers high-quality products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key ingredients for the effective implementation of Quality 4.0.

A narrative literature review was conducted on the extant works to collate and analyse previous studies in this relatively new field.

The study revealed eight key ingredients for the effective implementation of Quality 4.0 in organizations, namely: (1) handling big data, (2) improving prescriptive analytics, (3) using Quality 4.0 for effective vertical, horizontal and end-to-end integration, (4) using Quality 4.0 for strategic advantage, (5) leadership in Quality 4.0, (6) training in Quality 4.0, (7) organizational culture for Quality 4.0 and, lastly, (8) top management support for Quality 4.0. These findings have provided a steer for the future research agenda of Quality 4.0.

Organizations can use the eight ingredients to perform a self-assessment on the current state of each element within their own organization. When implementing Quality 4.0, each ingredient should be effectively analysed, and measures taken so that the implementation of Quality 4.0 is effective.

The paper makes the first attempt to present the key ingredients an organization should possess to effectively implement Quality 4.0.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a continuous improvement methodology that has been adopted by several companies as a strategy to increase their competitive advantage. However, due to the misuse of LSS theory in practice, a high rate of implementation failure results. There is a need for a structured and standardised framework to describe how the LSS initiative should be implemented and sustained over time. As a result, this study aims to develop a practical, user-friendly and accurate LSS road map for a Scottish manufacturing small and medium enterprise.

The approach was to analyse existing literature on lean and Six Sigma that included road maps and critical success factors (CSFs) in order to design an in-company, quantitative survey instrument. The aim of the survey was to evaluate employees' perceptions on the importance of LSS CSFs for the successful implementation and sustainability of a continuous improvement initiative. Based on the literature and results from the data collected, an LSS reference guide - in the form of a road map - was designed to support LSS implementation and sustainability.

A customised LSS reference guide in a road map format for the Scottish SME was proposed. This road map was developed by adopting existing successful road maps from the literature into consideration and then adapting them to fulfil the company's particular perspective on CI. This study complements current literature on LSS road maps and corroborates LSS CSFs as crucial for successful LSS implementation and sustainability, regardless of the type of company and/or culture. However, a degree of importance is ascribed to the organisation's culture.

Whilst a survey was used as the data collection instrument future interviews with employees would enhance the understanding of the organisational culture and hence further improve the road map.

The authors developed a practical and strategic roadmap for a Scottish packaging small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) which can be used by other similar SMEs. The proposed LSS road map can be replicated and/or adapted for companies in their application of LSS. The methodology by which this study's road map was designed can be used as a guide in the development of further CI road maps.

Quality 4.0 is the new buzzword among quality professionals. There has been no empirical study of Quality 4.0 yet. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate what are the motivations, barriers and readiness factors for Quality 4.0 implementation.

This study uses an online survey on senior quality professionals working in leading companies in Europe and America. In total, 50 participants participated in this study.

This study finds the top five motivating, barriers and readiness factors for Quality 4.0 implementation. These factors are ranked in terms of the order of importance as perceived by senior quality professionals.

This is the first empirical study on Quality 4.0 that investigates the motivation, barriers and readiness factors of Quality 4.0. This study provides a theoretical base of Quality 4.0 body of knowledge in terms of its practical relevance and adoption in modern-day organizations.

Organizations can use this study to understand what the motivation and barriers for implementing Quality 4.0. In addition, before implementation of Quality 4.0, the readiness factor for Quality 4.0 can be used by organizations to evaluate their preparedness before the actual implementation of the initiative.

This is the first empirical study on Quality 4.0 that captures the viewpoints of senior quality professionals on the motivation, barriers and readiness factors of Quality 4.0.