Lean thinking and its implications for public procurement: moving forward with assessment and implementation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-11-02-2011-B003 |
| Pages | 206-239 |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Author | Joseph J. Schiele,Clifford P. McCue |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public Finance/economics,Texation/public revenue |
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 11, ISSUE 2, 206-239 SUMMER 2011
LEAN THINKING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT:
MOVING FORWARD WITH ASSESSMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
Joseph J. Schiele and Clifford P. McCue*
ABSTRACT. Over the last several decades, lean thinking has been credited
with several advancements in the practices of private sector organizations.
Only recently have researchers begun to report on lean thinking as it applies
to the public sector. For public procurement research, the concept remains
largely unexamined. This research used the extant literature to identify
preconditions that are required to successfully deploy lean thinking
principles, tools, and techniques. Salient preconditions were organized into
key categories. These categories provided the basis for a framework
designed to assess public procurement’s ability to adopt lean thinking, and
aid in its implementation within this public sector environment. Questions
suggested to guide future research, along with an approach intended to
facilitate this work, are also presented.
INTRODUCTION
Faced with continued fiscal pressures that have increased
considerably over the last half of this decade (Holzer, Charbonneau &
Kim, 2009), state and local governments are attempting to control
costs with hiring freezes, work-force reductions, and widespread
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* Joseph J. Schiele, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, Department of
Decision and Information Sciences, and Academic Director, Pawley Lean
Institute, Oakland University. His research interests are in management of
service organizations and improvement of public procurement practice.
Clifford P. McCue, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, and Director, Public
Procurement Research Center, School of Public Administration, Florida
Atlantic University. His research interests are in public administration,
purchasing, and public management, examining such critical issues as
organizational effectiveness, productivity, decision-making, behavior, and
public policy.
Copyright © 2011 by PrAcademics Press
LEAN THINKING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT 207
cutbacks across their respective organizations (Kim, Bae & Eger,
2009). While these approaches may create the illusion of efficiency,
operations and processes remain fundamentally unchanged. This in
turn can lead to resources that are poorly allocated, and an increase
in quality related problems (Lamothe, Lamothe & Feiock, 2008;
Lamothe & Lamothe, 2009; Stone, 2009; Zafra, Lopez,& Hernandez,
2009). Real programmatic efficiency is driven by improvement
initiatives that focus on the way that work is designed and managed,
with the intention of streamlining processes, eliminating waste, and
improving upon the general effectiveness of the various tasks that
are completed as per the customer’s perspective (Womack & Jones,
1996; Liker, 2004).
When public managers are looking to effect positive change, they
may want to focus their attention on their public procurement
systems. These systems in particular are an area where a significant
amount of operational costs are incurred and opportunities exist for
both fiscal and process improvement (Basheka, 2009; Miller, 2009).
Unfortunately, those responsible for making improvements within
these systems face some unique challenges that can affect their
ability to take advantage of such opportunities (Thai, 2007).
Purchasers in the public sector face political scrutiny of their activities
through external audits and in-house reviews, ongoing review by the
public for any indication of mismanagement of public funds, and
sudden policy changes that characterize government decisionmaking
(Gordon, Zemansky & Sekwat, 2000; Mechling, 1995; Pettijohn &
Qiao, 2000). Schiele (2007) found that it is the very nature of these
environments that can make those involved more focused on
procedural compliance rather than value for money spent. In addition,
the required rules and procedures that must be followed, which are
associated with legal constraints and administrative regulations, can
also affect “efficiency” in terms of the complexities associated with
selection processes (Thai, 2007). Indeed, some of the earliest
literature acknowledged how difficult it is to manage, and make
improvements to, public procurement systems (Forbes, 1929 &
1941; Liuzzo, 1967). Nonetheless, the public procurement function
plays a critical role in the way that public organizations provide
services to the public that are served, and every effort should be
made to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent in the most efficient
and effective manner (Thai, 2007).
208 SCHIELE & MCCUE
Any effort aimed at increasing system efficiency and general
effectiveness will need to address concurrently issues related to
accountability, transparency, and fairness (Lamothe & Lamothe,
2009). In addition, the particularly complex nature of the public
procurement process will make coordination among those
stakeholders involved critical to the successful implementation of
strategies that might promote improvement. The challenge will be to
balance the interests of the various stakeholders including
politicians, government administrators, procurement, other public
departments, and the public at large. While the common goal should
be to better serve the public through the way that taxpayer funds are
spent, the various stakeholders may have very different ideas about
how this should be achieved.
Indeed, the latter describes what has been called a “wicked
problem.” A wicked problem is one that is difficult or impossible to
solve because of incomplete and or contradictory information, and
changes in conditions that are not easy to recognize. Moreover
because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one part of
a wicked problem can reveal or create other problems (Churchman,
1967; Rittel & Webber, 1973). Churchman (1967) did suggest that a
moral responsibility exists to better understand and work at
addressing such problems, and Rittel (1972) hinted at a collaborative
approach to resolving such problems; one which would attempt to
actively involve those affected in the problem-solving process. More
recent work acknowledges similar challenges but suggests that
adaptable approaches to change, involving collaboration, risk taking,
experimentation, incremental change, and creative problem-solving
techniques can be used to find the best possible solution for such
problems. These approaches tend to help create more understanding
of a given problem’s underlying causes, and buy-in and cooperation
among key stakeholders who can affect or will be affected by the
problem- solving process and or the solutions ultimately implemented
(Roberts, 2000; Camillus, 2008; Stolterman, 2008; Conklin, 2006,
2009).
One such approach, known as lean thinking, may have potential
as a means to help improve the way that public procurement systems
are designed and managed, and the way that wicked problems are
addressed. Lean thinking as a collaborative approach to process
improvement is focused on improving the way that goods and
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