Lean in higher education. A proposed model for lean transformation in a business school with MCDM application

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-12-2016-0089
Date04 February 2019
Published date04 February 2019
Pages82-102
AuthorYigit Kazancoglu,Yesim Deniz Ozkan-Ozen
Subject MatterEducation,Educational evaluation/assessment
Lean in higher education
A proposed model for lean transformation in a
business school with MCDM application
Yigit Kazancoglu and Yesim Deniz Ozkan-Ozen
Department of International Logistics Management,
Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose This research aims to investigate and dene the eight wastes of lean philosophy in higher
educationinstitutions (HEIs) by proposing a multi-stage model.
Design/methodology/approach The authors have used a specic multi-criteria decision-making
method, fuzzy decision-makingtrial and evaluation laboratory, to investigate the causeeffect relationships
and importance order between criteria for wastesin HEIs. In total, 22 criteria were categorized under eight
wastes of lean. The study was implemented in a businessschool with the participation of faculty members
from differentdepartments.
Findings The results showed that the most important wastes in the business school selected were
repeated tasks, unnecessary bureaucracy, errors because of misunderstanding/communication problems,
excessive number of academicunits and creation of an excessive amount of information. Another important
result was that all the sub-wastes of talentwere in the causes group, while motion and transportation wastes
were in the effect group.
Practical implications A road map to guide lean transformation for HEIs is proposed with a multi-
stage modeland potential areas for improvement in HEIs werepresented.
Originality/value This study proposes a multi-stage structure by applying multi-criteria decision-
making to HEIs, focussingon wastes from a lean perspective.
Keywords Lean, Fuzzy DEMATEL, Higher education, Waste
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Although lean manufacturing is a well-established concept, the application of lean
principles to higher education institutions (HEIs) is a relatively recent innovation in
the literature. However, especially in theUKandUSA,manyHEIsarenowusinglean
principles to make improvements, although there is still a misconception among
many service-sector managers that lean principles only apply to manufacturing
environments.
This study focusses on one of the most important lean principles: the identication and
elimination of waste. Usingthis approach, the aim of this study is to dene eight wastes for
HEIs and to investigate the causalrelationship between them to create an importance order,
using a particular multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, fuzzy decision-making
trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The results are expected to be valuable to the
higher education environment for investigating waste. This methodology can be used for
HEIs beginning a lean transformation. However, while the proposed denitions, model of
criteria and sub-criteria (i.e. wastesand sub-wastes) and methodology can be generalized to
all HEIs, the results will be unique for each institution, taking into account their objectives
and constraints.
QAE
27,1
82
Received27 December 2016
Revised23 June 2017
20June 2018
9 July2018
Accepted13 August 2018
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.27 No. 1, 2019
pp. 82-102
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-12-2016-0089
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
The next section reviews the literature related to lean philosophy, lean principles in
service and lean principles in higher education.The eight wastes in HEIs are then examined
in detail in terms of the related literatures.Finally, the methodology and its implementation
are described.
2. Literature review
The following sections review the literature in detail on lean philosophy, lean principles in
the service industry and lean principlesin higher education.
2.1 Overview of lean philosophy and lean principles in the service industry
While lean philosophyas a concept can be traced back to the works of Taylor and Demingin
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the core of todays thinking is based on Toyota
Manufacturing Systems, which pioneered the worldwide spread of the principles of lean
philosophy, not only inthe automobile industry but also in other manufacturing and service
sector environments.
The specic term leanwas rst used by Krafcik (1988) to describe Toyotas business
ideology, which focussed on customer needs, while minimizing activities that did not add
value to the system in other words, waste. Accordingto Hines and Rich (1997):
The process of elimination or at least reducing wastes is based on rstly identifying them in the
value stream then removing them from the stream by using appropriate tools and techniques.
Taiichi Ohno originally dened the following specic wastes, or muda in Japanese, for the
manufacturing industry: overproduction, over-processing, waiting, transportation,
unnecessary inventory, unnecessary motion and defects (Ohno, 1988). However,these seven
well-known wastes, dened and categorized exclusively for the manufacturing
environment, were foundto be insufcientfor more general applications. Although Emiliani
(1998) mentioned that seven traditional wastes ignored human behaviours, Liker (2004)
ofcially introducedthe eighth waste as unused employee creativity.
The Lean Enterprise Institute summarized the main lean principles as ve steps to
facilitate their application: identifying value, mapping the value stream, creating ow,
establishing pullideology and seeking perfection (Womack and Jones, 1996).
While historically the lean philosophy was based on improving manufacturing
organizations, nowadays, its principlesare commonly used in the service industries as well.
Some lean tools that are appropriatefor this sector are balancing, performance analysis and
visual management (Maskell and Kennedy, 2007;Shojaeian et al.,2014). The key steps in
applying lean principles to services are deningthe needs of the relevant service sector and
adapting the tools according to these needs. From the literature review, it can be seen that
there are many studies in different service elds in which lean tools and techniques were
used to apply lean principles to service systems. For instance, there are examples in
healthcare (Waring and Bishop, 2010;Kera et al., 2014;Martin et al.,2014;Stanton et al.,
2014), hospitality (Vlachos and Bogdanovic, 2013; Abdelhadi, 2016) and nance (Maskell
and Kennedy, 2007;Kennedy and Widener, 2008;Wang and Chen, 2010). Table I
summarizes the applicationof lean approaches to the service sector.
The seven types of waste listed above occur in the service sector as well as in
manufacturing. Shojaeian et al. (2014) identify the following kinds of waste in services:
mistakes requiring rectication, unnecessary processes, inappropriate movement of
employees in organizational stages, unnecessary transport, unnecessary archiving, parallel
processes and activities, collection and recording of repeated information, excessive
exchange of data and information, complexity of processes and failure to satisfy customer
MCDM
application
83

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