Lean Six Sigma for public sector organizations: is it a myth or reality?

Abstract

Purpose Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a process excellence has been widely adopted in both manufacturing and service organizations; however, its application in the public sector has not been widely explored. Is LSS still a myth or reality in our public sector organizations? The purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to debate about the use of LSS and its potential applications in the public sector context. Design/methodology/approach The initial approach is to critically evaluate the role of LSS in various public sector contexts, followed by showcasing four case studies from four different public sector settings: higher education, police service, public hospital and local government. Findings LSS methodology can be embraced by all public sector organizations to create efficient and effective processes to provide enhanced customer experience and value at reduced operational costs. Research limitations/implications This paper seeks to contribute to and broaden the limited body of evidence of the applicability of LSS to public sector organizations and identifies areas for further research and review. Practical implications LSS will continue to grow across many public sector organizations in Europe and other parts of the world over the forthcoming years. However, what will eventually determine if LSS is viewed by public sector organizations as just a passing management fad or not largely depends on the leadership and success of its execution. If LSS is deployed in its true sense across the public sector organizations at a global level, the hard cash savings generated can reach several billions. Originality/value The paper yields an immense value to both research scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the introduction of LSS as a business process improvement strategy to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Moreover, this paper makes an attempt to dispel the myth of LSS which have been quite prevalent in many public sector organizations around us today.

Lean Six Sigma and quality frameworks in higher education – a review of literature

“…LSS has been used extensively within the manufacturing sector and a range of industries (for example, health care; public sector) to facilitate greater customer focus and achieve savings to the bottom-line (Antony et al, 2017). Pepper and Spedding (2010) contend that the combination of Lean and Six Sigma, "if fused together, can potentially represent an exceptionally powerful tool" (p. 151) as it looks to balance the people/culture aspects with the process/tools of Six Sigma.…”

Quality and lean practices synergies

“…Quality and lean practices represent complementary investments through which firms can improve their performance. The empirical results highlight the need for investments in quality and lean practices and managers must realise that the efficacy of these practices can be enhanced through their cumulative effect (Albliwi et al, 2017;Antony et al, 2017;Alexander et al, 2019). Also, the findings can help practitioners to appreciate how different competitive priorities (speed, quality) should be enhanced.…”

Improving performance measurement efficiency in public service using lean six sigma methodology

“…Lean Six Sigma methodology could be applied appropriately in UK public sector to get the benefits and better return of investment [10]. Lean Six Sigma methodology is a good tool to be applied in all public organizations to make the efficient and effective processes [11]. After the previous researches, this paper aims to conduct an efficient measurement process of government position and recommends improvements in order to reduce the delay of submitting Functional Worksheet (FW) through Lean Six Sigma method.…”