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Administrative processes play a crucial role in various sectors, often contributing to cost overruns and delays. While lean concept has been extensively applied in many industries, there is a recognized need for further research on the integration of lean in administrative processes. To address this research gap, this study aims to systematically analyse the implementation of lean in administrative processes, providing a sector-wise comparison to explore its prospects for the construction industry.

A systematic literature review was conducted by adapting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method. Eighty-six research papers are subjected to descriptive and content analysis on different tools applied in lean integrated administrative processes in health care, education, public administration and other sectors.

The research study reveals common lean tools irrespective of sector. Moreover, specific tools used for a particular sector are analysed. Out of the various lean tools and techniques, value stream mapping, 5S and Kaizen are highly acknowledged tools in every sector of lean intervention. Furthermore, ECRS is applied explicitly in the education sector. Furthermore, it is noted that Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers (SIPOC), 5whys, load levelling and control charts are identical to administrative processes in lean health care. Furthermore, Spaghetti charts and Kaikaku are only adapted to administrative processes in the public administration sector, and causal loop diagrams are used explicitly in administrative processes in the construction sector.

This study contributes to research by developing a guideline to design lean intervention for a lean-integrated administrative process in any sector which still needs to be transformed into lean. Hence, this study will be a cornerstone for incorporating lean principles for administrative processes in construction sector.

The present research aims to understand how the literature on lean leadership is currently structured. For this, the thematic subdivisions within the subject (thematic clusters) are analyzed as well as the networks between authors and the authors' countries and the chronological co-occurrence of terms over the years.

The research strategy chosen was a bibliometric analysis conducted with documents collected from the Scopus scientific database. After screening, 192 documents were analyzed using the Vosviewer software.

The main result is related to identifying four thematic clusters. The first cluster is connected to the manufacturing and supply chain industry, and this showed an increasing concern with sustainability, agile manufacturing and digitalization. The second is related to small and medium-sized companies in which Lean concepts, often associated with Six Sigma ideas, present as differentials for competitive advantage. The third one is associated with the civil construction segment, in which there is a great need for cultural and organizational change. The fourth cluster focuses on health organizations. In all clusters, leadership plays a key role.

Besides the contributions to the literature on the theme, this study provides interesting insights for managers regarding the path the managers' sectors are taking in the Lean leadership context.

There are no studies that critically examine Lean leadership literature. This research identifies clusters on the theme, showing how Lean leadership is being addressed by international research.

The paper tests if and to what extent lean management system adoption generates abnormal profitability, and how it accrues over time. Configurational approaches to lean management systems and “S-curve” effects in lean implementation are used to ground the paper's hypotheses and interpret its findings.

Using the emerging view of lean as enterprise-wide management systems, this quasi-experimental study uses a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the abnormal profitability (ROIC) attributable to lean management system adoption. The paper leverages a unique data set of lean adopters nested in a panel data set (19 years) of 2,088 industrial firms matched by industry and firm size. It applies a variety of regression methods (two-way fixed effect panel estimator, propensity score matching, instrumental variable two-stage-least squares) to estimate the size of the abnormal profitability attributable to lean management systems, addressing endogeneity issues related to non-random sampling, omitted variable bias and reverse causation. It also analyzes the cross-firm variability of such abnormal profitability and how it accrues over time.

For the average non-adopter in the sample (44.3 million euro revenues), lean adoption generates abnormal ROIC ranging from 1.4% to 3.9%. These results come into effect approximately three years after starting lean adoption and peak after eight years. While the average abnormal profitability attributable to lean adoption is sizable, it varies significantly across firms and over time. This significant variation is compatible with firms' diverse ability to understand the complex inner workings of lean systems, and to design and implement them so that they improve profitability.

The conceptualization of lean as enterprise-wide management system can be further refined to more effectively categorize the components of lean systems and investigate the nature of their relationships. Lean system adoption measurement can be fine-tuned to better capture cross-firm and longitudinal heterogeneity. Future work can explore other dependent variables of interest to different stakeholders including shareholders' value, employment and environmental and social sustainability.

The financial benefits of adopting lean can be reaped to the extent to which managers embrace lean as a philosophy and implement it pervasively in the organization. A firm can use the study's estimates as a basis for making calculations about the returns of investment in lean adoption. The paper also shows that “getting the lean system right” makes a significant difference in terms of abnormal profitability, which is twice as large for the best lean adopters..

Compared with the promises of many lean proponents and supporters, the paper provides a more realistic view of what to expect from lean adoption in terms of profitability. Adopting lean as a comprehensive, enterprise-wide management system is not a universal panacea, but a complex endeavor, characterized by multiple complex decisions that require considerable capabilities, coordinated efforts and consistency of action.

Differently from extant research, this study does not study the correlation between the adoption of lean operation practices and financial performance but focuses on the abnormal profitability generated by the adoption of lean as a pervasive, enterprise-wide management system. Its research design allows to identify the differential profitability attributable to lean adoption and documents that it accrues non-linearly.

The proliferation of lean principles in the construction industry is offset by the enduring uncertainty among industry stakeholders regarding their respective roles in lean implementation. This uncertainty is further compounded by the scarcity of empirical investigations in this area. Consequently, this study undertakes the task of bridging this knowledge gap by identifying the critical roles of lean learners and their indispensable contributions to achieving successful lean implementation.

A qualitative exploratory approach informed by an interpretivism perspective was adopted. The case study strategy was employed to gather data from three contracting organisations that had implemented lean practices. Empirical data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with fifteen industry experts and complemented by document reviews. To analyse the data, a code-based content analysis approach was employed using NVivo software, while Power BI software was utilised to develop a comprehensive force-directed graph visualisation.

The research findings substantiated nine lean learners and unveiled a set of seventy-three roles associated with them. The force-directed graph facilitated the identification of lean learners and their connections to the emerged roles. Notably, the graph highlighted the pivotal role played by project managers and internal lean trainers in ensuring the success of lean implementation, surpassing the contributions of other lean learners.

The implications of findings extend to industry professionals seeking to establish a robust lean learning framework to expedite lean implementation within the construction sector. This study not only provides a comprehensive definition of lean learners’ roles but also transcends specific construction types, making it a significant catalyst for global impact.

To address the absence of Lean in transportation logistics in the digital era, this study aims to investigate the application of Lean transportation (LT) tools to reduce waste and facilitate the digital transformation of dedicated road transportation in the offshore industry.

The study adopts action research with a multimethod approach, including a scoping review, focus groups (FG) and participant observation. The research is conducted within the offshore supply chain of a major oil and gas company.

Implementing LT’s continuous improvement tools, particularly value stream mapping (VSM), reduces offshore transportation waste and provides empirical evidence about the intersection of Lean and digital technologies. Applying techniques drawn from organisational learning theory (OLT), stakeholders involved in VSM mapping and FGs engage in problem-solving and develop action plans, driving digital transformation. Waste reduction in loading and unloading stages leads to control actions, automation and process improvements, significantly reducing downtime. This results in an annual monetary gain of US$1.3m. The study also identifies waste related to human effort and underutilised digital resources.

This study contributes to theory and practice by using action research and LT techniques in a real intervention case. From the lens of OLT, it highlights the potential of LT tools for digital transformation and demonstrates the convergence of waste reduction through Lean and Industry 4.0 technologies in the offshore supply chain. Practical outputs, including a benchmarking questionnaire and a plan-do-check-act cycle, are provided for other companies in the same industry segment.

This study aims to study the implementation of lean thinking at the strategic level of an Italian manufacturing company. Companies implementing continuous improvement (CI) projects in their production processes often take the monitoring phase for granted. This research deploys an A3 lean thinking project in the monitoring phase of strategic KPIs upon completion of several ongoing improvement projects.

The research methodology is action research aiming at disseminating the problems that the company is facing. The study relies on the lean action plan developed by Womack and Jones (2003): Planning for lean and Lean action. Lean planning consists of the following steps: find a change agent; get the knowledge; find a lever. Lean action uses the A3 lean approach.

The company reached high-performance improvements due to the proposed lean action plan.

This study contributes by presenting a lean action plan in the monitoring phase, highlighting the importance of the lean thinking-monitoring continuum in reducing time waste for faster diagnosis and using action research to analyze and instill reflective learning.

The research relies on the A3 methodology to showcase the benefits that a mature paradigm, often coined to production, still has unexplored potentials.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational performance in a specific Greek public services subsector, namely, citizen’s service centers (CSCs).

An online structured questionnaire survey was distributed to all the Greek CSCs, and 672 employees responded and fully completed the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to assess the measurement model’s reliability and validity. The relationships between the latent constructs were examined through structural equation modeling.

The study revealed that Greek CSCs adopt at a medium to high extent the following principles: understanding customer needs, establishment of value streams, creating flows within the value streams and value perfection. The data also revealed a valid latent factor reflecting the Lean application, namely, “Lean adoption,” which, according to the findings, contributes to the organizational performance of Greek CSCs.

The small percentage of the responding employees of the Greek CSCs, given their large population and the subjective nature of the data collected, constitute the main limitations of the present study.

The findings of this research will serve as a reference source for managers and decision-makers of CSCs in order for them to set the foundations for successfully adopting the Lean principles and therefore improve their organizational performance in terms of operational performance and satisfaction with employees and citizens.

Building on the public sector literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the adoption of Lean principles in the Greek CSCs and defines the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational 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.

This paper aims to explore knowledge work waste and defines the priorities for enhancing performance and productivity in policing and prosecution services (PPS), especially in the crime investigation process (CIP).

Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a case study of a Norwegian police district is examined to identify and prioritize the most performance-vulnerable crime investigation unit, using the adapted knowledge work waste as the performance metric.

Nine waste categories and 15 subcategories are identified and understood within a two-dimensional network of managerial and operational waste adapted for the PPS. The AHP helps classify levels of priority for each knowledge work waste and orderly prioritization of crime investigation units.

The findings have limited generalizability, as they are based on a single Norwegian police district. This warrants research on the wider applicability of the adapted waste categories and approach.

This study can support public managers in implementing lean thinking and identifying the most prominent wastes in a complex system. In this context, processes and operations are among the factors dominated by knowledge work and are dependent on multiple stakeholders, cross-functional activities and interdisciplinary collaboration, which is more challenging to measure systematically and quantitatively than in a manufacturing environment.

This study contributes to the gap in lean thinking literature by advancing the knowledge on the adaptation and application of the foundational principles of lean thinking in the PPS and CIP.

Lean construction (LC) consists of very effective techniques; however, its implementation varies considerably from one industry to another. Although numerous lean initiatives do exist in the construction industry, the research topic related to LC implementation is still unexplored due to the scarcity of validated assessment frameworks. This study aims to provide the first attempt in developing a structural model for successful LC implementation.

This study developed a Lean construction model (LCM) by critically reviewing seven previous LC frameworks from different countries, defining 18 subprinciples grouped into 6 major principles and formulating testable hypotheses. The questionnaire was pre-tested with 12 construction management experts and revised by 4 specialized academics. A pilot study with 20 construction units enhanced content reliability. Data from 307 Moroccan construction companies were collected to develop a measurement model. SPSS V. 26 was used for Exploratory Factor Analysis, followed by confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS version 23. Finally, a structural equation model statistically assessed each construct's contribution to the success of LC implementation.

This work led to the development of an original LCM based on valid and reliable LC constructs, consisting of 18 measurement items grouped into 6 LC principles: Process Transparency, People involvement, Waste elimination, Planning and Continuous improvement, Client Focus and Material/information flow and pull. According to the structural model, LC implementation success is positively influenced by Planning and Scheduling/continuous improvement (β = 0.930), followed by Elimination of waste (β = 0.896). Process transparency ranks third (β = 0.858). The study demonstrates that all these factors are mutually complementary, highlighting a positive relationship between LC implementation success and the holistic application of all LC principles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop a statistically proven model of LC based on structural equation modelling analysis, which is promising for stimulating construction practitioners and researchers for more empirical studies in different countries to obtain a more accurate reflection of LC implementation. Moreover, the paper proposes recommendations to help policymakers, academics and practitioners anticipate the key success drivers for more successful LC implementation.