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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) knowledge within the field of higher education institutions. The paper will review the initial phase of an implementation and highlight future challenges of applying the LSS method in a complex transactional environment.

The observations presented in this paper originate from rolling out a large LSS implementation at a recently established university. The paper is supported with secondary data from literature.

The implementation of LSS methodology at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has resulted in improvements in business processes and efficiency. This has been achieved through project execution and training programs. Approximately 350 staff members have completed awareness training, 50 yellow belts and 150 green belts have been trained, and the first round of seven black belts have completed training of which two have completed certification.

This paper is based on an empirical study of a single instance and the authors’ experiences as practitioners.

This paper is the first description of what is believed to be one of the largest implementations of LSS in higher education.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the intangible impacts of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and organisational innovation climate factors and proposes a conceptual model to link them. This paper ultimately aims to extend the range of LSS application by proposing LSS as a tool for fostering organisational innovation.

The paper followed a qualitative research approach to identify, analyse and categorize the intangible impacts of LSS by reviewing previous literature on its application and conducting in-depth interviews with its experts. Then, a detailed description of organisational innovation climate was provided to highlight its main factors. Finally, a conceptual model was developed to illustrate the relationships among the collected information.

LSS was found to have many intangible impacts categorized as organisational or individual related. Organisational innovation climate is determined by a number of factors that were found to be positively influenced by many of LSS's intangible impacts. Thus, a number of propositions between LSS's intangible impacts and organisational innovation climate factors were proposed, as illustrated by a conceptual model.

Studying the relationship between LSS and innovation by considering LSS's intangible impacts and linking them to organisational innovation climate factors is a relatively new approach that makes the contribution of this research valuable and significant to academics and professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, present and categorise the main requirements, challenges and impacts of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) applications. Emphasis is given to the soft impacts of LSS applications, which are intangible in nature and difficult to quantify and measure, highlighting the most frequently cited ones.

A qualitative synthesis of the studies using the narrative synthesis approach is adopted to descriptively summarise and categorise the requirements, challenges and impacts of LSS applications. The studies were searched by using the following keywords: “LSS applications,” “LSS requirements,” “LSS challenges” and “LSS impacts” in almost all major electronic databases such as Emerald, Taylor and Francis, ScienceDirect and Wiley. A total of 116 articles published between 2007 and 2017 in 41 academic journals were collected and reviewed. Consideration was also given to a number of substantial publications in 2006, 2018 and 2019.

In addition to its process efficiency and financial impacts, LSS was found to have another impact category related to individual and organisational behaviours. Management commitment, training and organisational culture were concluded to be amongst the most important and required categories for successful LSS applications. It was also found that the lack of awareness of LSS tools and benefits and the lack of change management and resistance to change were amongst the most cited categories of implementation challenges.

The studies published between 2007 and 2017 are mainly considered in this paper. It is believed that 10-year publication period considered in this research is sufficient to study the evolution, benefits, limitations and future trends of a particular research topic. However, the exclusion criteria used in the search process with respect to the articles’ year of publication and search terms and keywords may limit the generalisation of the research findings. In addition, the qualitative nature of this research study and the lack of empirical data to support its findings is another limitation that future research should consider.

This research paper may serve as a valuable source of information for LSS researchers as it will provide them with useful and new insights and directions for further research in LSS. It will also increase the awareness of LSS practitioners about the kind of impact LSS has, and therefore, achieve a better utilisation of its tools by ensuring availability of application requirements and overcoming application challenges.

This study differs from previous research studies as it focusses attention on the soft impacts of LSS applications and highlights them. The study identifies and prioritises LSS application impacts, requirements and challenges. The study on these aspects was found to be limited and lacking in previous research studies.

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 review the existing literature on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for services, construct a morphological analysis (MA) framework and identify research gaps to point to future research possibilities and priorities.

The MA framework is based on literature review of 175 papers published from 2003 to 2015, across 67 journals recognised by Scopus or ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide 2015. A three-phased methodology is used by the authors, with Phase1 featuring a five-stage systematic review protocol to identify relevant journal papers for review; Phase2 presenting a framework for classifying the reviewed papers in terms of their fundamental, methodological, chronological and sector-wise orientations; and Phase3 constructing an MA framework on the classified papers and identifying the research gaps.

The MA framework constructed based on six dimensions, namely, organizational context of applications, desired outcomes, implementation systems, LSS tools and techniques, integration with other management philosophies and evaluation methods, involving 40 focused themes, has revealed 355 distinct research gaps as opportunities for future research.

This paper confirms the existence of substantial scope and points to specific topics for further research in the area of LSS for services. The findings demonstrate the gaps in academic research on the subject. In addition, the study also helps organisational leaders and practitioners to look at LSS from a holistic perspective in the services context.

The MA framework of the existing literature on LSS for services presents a unique, systematic effort to identify research opportunities. In addition, a five-stage systematic review protocol is proposed in this paper. This could be valuable to researchers and practitioners in enabling them to systematically review the literature on research subjects of interest to them.