A lean six sigma approach for improving university campus office moves

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to improve the quoting, scheduling, invoicing and paying for campus office moves at a university. The Lean Six Sigma project goal was to improve the campus office move process by making it less complicated, free-up program managers’ time and pay the vendor on time. Design/methodology/approach The team used the Lean Six Sigma Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control methodology to improve the process. Findings The average time from the campus move to when the invoice was paid improved by 27%, with an improved median of 16%. The standard deviation was greatly reduced by 51%. The average invoiced date to paid date remained statistically the same, and the median increased from 20 to 30 days, due to a policy change to move the target from 20 to 30 days. The standard deviation of the invoice to paid date was greatly reduced by 38%. This was a successful project because the sponsors were on-board from the beginning and included the process owners in the improvement effort. Originality/value Other higher education institutions or other industry areas with a similar process can implement this methodology and processes outlined in this case study to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness and as a guide for improving other processes within institutions.

Lean management in universities: a systematic literature review

“…Implementing 5S provides a basis for creating an organizational culture that fosters continuous improvement Systematic reduction of risks with their identification and elimination Jiménez et al (2015) VSM use can improve the management of facilities by identifying the activities that generate added value and those that do not Isa and Usmen (2015) Lean applied to human resource management Increases the ability to manage the hiring process and direct it toward hiring the best applicants, which results in university growth and sustainability Waterbury (2010) Lean principles and practices improve the HR management process Mundth et al (2020) Lean applied in the procurement/ purchasing department Eliminates unnecessary work steps, improves the workflow and increases the personnel's free time, which can then be devoted to activities that generate new added value Martinez and Gitlow (2011) Lean applied to management of administrative services Improves the productivity of these processes, reducing the time needed to search for files Magalhães et al (2019) Identifies the multiple challenges that have to be addressed when working with intangible factors that are difficult to recognize and quantify and that are rarely tracked by universities Wheeler-Webb and Furterer (2019) Students involved in implementing lean in the administrative management process Enables the elimination of wastage in the administrative process and a substantial reduction in the number of steps needed to process the change Doman (2011) Having students apply lean is a win-win system, as they have the opportunity to apply their learning and have to address challenges in real-time when they run projects while the university is simultaneously improving its processes Student participation is limited by the lack of ownership and sense of responsibility and it is a challenge to keep the students motivated throughout the project duration Sunder and Mahalingam (2018) (continued) Other authors focus on how the application of lean can help to improve or solve a specific problem (Nikolaeva et al, 2018;Gupta et al, 2020). Nikolaeva (2018) examines the idea of creating smart universities based on the introduction of lean principles.…”

An integrated spherical fuzzy AHP multi-criteria method for Covid-19 crisis management in regarding lean six sigma

“…LSS reduces cost, quality defects and increases productivity in the serving sector. This situation has been proven by applying it at the university (Wheeler-Webb and Furterer, 2019). Similarly, Vaishnavi and Suresh (2020) stated that LSS accelerates the service and eliminates waste by applying LSS in hospitals.…”

Linking practices to results: an analysis toward Lean Six Sigma deployment in the public sector

“…In healthcare, the most mentioned are cost savings (Improta et al , 2017; Matt et al , 2014; Stonemetz et al , 2011), length of stay rate (Desai et al , 2018; Montella et al , 2017; Niemeijer et al , 2013), cycle time (Bashir et al , 2012; Schmidt et al , 2017), efficiency (Tagge et al , 2017; Wijma et al , 2009), use of resources (Chassin, 2013; Sayeed et al , 2018; Tekes et al , 2016), patient care (Ahmed et al , 2018; Blick, 2013; Hassanain, 2017), wasting rate (Ciulla et al , 2018; Gayed et al , 2013; Koning et al , 2006), waiting time (Gijo and Antony, 2014; Godley and Jenkins, 2019; Lin et al , 2013), procedure safety (Mancosu et al , 2018; Shah et al , 2016), etc. In the education sector, improvements were noted mainly regarding efficiency in both business (Antony, 2015; Svensson et al , 2015) and educational (Haerizadeh and Sunder, 2019; Pavlović et al , 2014) processes, curriculum design (Martínez León, 2019; Thomas et al , 2017), student satisfaction (O’Reilly et al , 2018; Sunder M, 2016) and performance (Martínez León, 2019; Sunder and Mahalingam, 2018), cost savings (O’Reilly et al , 2019; Wheeler-Webb and Furterer, 2019), enrolment management (Haerizadeh and Sunder, 2019; Hess and Benjamin, 2015), quality of teaching (Kregel, 2019; Pavlović et al , 2014), work practices (O’Reilly et al , 2018; Sunder and Mahalingam, 2018), etc.…”