A Framework Analysis for Lean Transformation: A Case Study of a Public Utility in Greece

Abstract

Purpose: Nowadays, the worldwide economic recession has created numerous challenges in the Public Sector of Greece, which in turn affect the sustainability of public enterprises. Overall, there is a high pressure to increase productivity and reduce operating costs. The need to adapt to the new environment is pushing public organizations to implement Lean Management strategies in accordance with Private Sector standards. However, the limited budget, public deficits and debts, bureaucratic culture, political dependence and lack of transparency present several issues. These pose a serious threat to successful implementation of Lean practices in the long-run. Lack of relevant research and dichotomous role of public service organizations make this study very interesting. This research paper is aiming at exploring and highlighting the impact of the most important Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the effective integration of Lean Management principles in Public Utility organizations in Greece by combining bibliographic research and empirical-with the quantitative method-research through case studies. Research Methodology: The research method combines bibliographic research and empirical-with the quantitative method. Quantitative method was employed on a sufficient sample of public employees from two of the largest public companies of Greece: Public Power Corporation (PPC S.A.) and Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP S.A.) in order to investigate the impact of the most important CSFs on successful Lean Transformation of them. Findings: Quantitative findings from this research illustrated that the most important CSFs that have a positive impact on successful Lean Transformation on Greek public organizations/utilities are:

The impact of Lean adoption on organizational performance in a public service: the case of the Greek citizen’s service centers

“…a total of 1,060 CSCs (Safari et al , 2020; Klein et al , 2022). The e-mail invitation also contained a brief explanation of the purpose of the study, as well as an explicit instruction to the recipient to forward the e-mail to all employees (from all hierarchical levels) of the specific CSC (Madsen et al , 2017; Angelopoulos and Pollalis, 2019; Pollalis and Angelopoulos, 2021). This URL led potential respondents to the questionnaire home page, which provided information on the research objectives, confidentiality and anonymity.…”

“…Moreover, Gupta et al (2016) found no available literature presenting the success measures of Lean development in service organizations (public or private). In other words, the issue of Lean adoption in the public sector remains largely under review (Juliani and de Oliveira, 2021; Fredriksson, 2020; Pollalis and Angelopoulos, 2021).…”

“…Thus, according to the literature review, regarding the adoption of Lean in the Greek public sector, only four studies were identified. However, in the research of Angelopoulos and Pollalis (2019), Pollalis and Angelopoulos (2021) and Psomas and Antony (2018), CSCs, were outside their scope and objectives, as these studies investigated the critical success factors (CSFs) of Lean and the degree of adoption of Lean principles while they concerned services and enterprises of the wider public sector public such as utility organizations that specialize in renewable energy sources (e.g. power, water), prefectures, municipalities, social insurance organizations, organizations of ministries and central government.…”

Critical success factors of lean in the public services sector: the case of the Greek citizen's service centers

“…, 2019b). According to Juliani and de-Oliveira (2017) and Pollalis and Angelopoulos (2021) there is a severe deficiency of bibliography and worldwide practice regarding the CSFs of lean management in public service sector.…”

“…The review of previous studies on lean in the Greek context showed that Lean is used in various parts of the Greek public sector and the concept has been adopted and implemented quite extensively in the municipal sector. More specifically, Angelopoulos and Pollalis (2019) and Pollalis and Angelopoulos (2021) investigated the effect of CSFs of lean adoption in Greece public companies and in particular in public utility organizations that specialize in renewable energy sources (eg power, water, etc.) while Psomas and Antony (2018) evaluated the degree of adoption of lean principles in a wide variety of Greek public service organizations such as municipalities, organizations of ministries and central government, educational institutions etc.…”