William K. Balzer: Lean higher education: increasing the value and performance of university processes

Abstract

Universities are competing with each other in an environment in which resources are scarce and student expectancy is high. Institutions should achieve better efficiency in processes which are vital to higher education. William K. Balzer explains the revolutionary Lean concept in an easy to apply five-step model for implementing and sustaining it at higher education institutions.The effectiveness of Lean principles and practices are proven by more than 50 years of use in a broad variety of organizations, business sectors, and cultures. This gives administrators a strong support for the 'transportability' of Lean principles and practices to higher education. This book provides example applications of Lean Higher Education (LHE) that demonstrate significant improvements in college and university processes and services at a reduced cost for the institution.Lean principles can result in significant improvements in the critical services and processes that are central to colleges and universities. Long-term needs of the institution and its employees are also preserved. Lean practices focus on eliminating unnecessary steps and activities that add no value to the university. Employees can contribute these practices by redesigning their work to improve their work satisfaction. LHE offers a set of easy steps to understand, diagnose, and improve college and university services and processes.The author targets individuals interested in learning how to apply Lean principles and practices to higher education, university administrators interested in learning more about LHE and how it can help achieve academic and operational excellence, graduate students in higher education interested in improving university processes and introducing largescale institutional change programs, and constituent leaders (e.g., university trustees seeking a competitive advantage over other higher education institutions, elected and appointed government officials balancing institutional support versus institutional outcomes, business leaders dependent on college graduates and the intellectual output of universities).

Can lean management change the managerial culture in higher education?

“…Migrating LM principles to public sector organisations has not been without problems (Balzer, Brodke and Kizhakethalackal 2015;Radnor and Osborne 2013), but for HE, Balzer (2020) suggests to:…”

“…Although LM implementation outside manufacturing is still in its infancy (Gupta, Sharma and Sunder 2016), there are a number of examples of LM implementation in HE. Over the last two decades, predominantly in the USA, implementation of LM has demonstrated some success (Balzer 2020. Yorkstone 2019, Alves, Flumerfelt and Kahlen (2016), Waterbury 2015Doman, 2011;Radnor and Bucci, 2011;Comm and Mathaisal 2005;Emiliani 2004;Comm and Mathaisal 2003).…”

“…Sectoral growth and funding cuts reinforce the need for audited accountability and quality assurance (Erickson, Hanna and Walker 2020;Winter 2009) and drive HEIs to pursue performance improvements and adopt principles and techniques from the private sector (Balzer 2020;Balzer, Brodke and Kizhakethalackal 2015;Greenway and Haynes 2003. Lean Management (LM) is one such approach that has been embraced by the sector to provide performance improvements, operational efficiencies and cost reductions. However, despite examples of success, LM, implemented and interpreted in this context of a managerial culture with the HE sector, has not solved all problems.…”

The Effect of Lean on Improving the Quality of Higher Education in Indonesia

“…Daniel T. Jones co-author of "The Machine That Changed the World" said in connection with the conference keynote address in September 2012 that most of the examples with Lean at university so far had to do with administration. (Bozkus, 2011) uses "Lean Higher Education" primarily to explain how administrative processes can be improved. (Doman, 2011) also saw opportunities to improve administrative processes.…”

“…The teaching business of higher education learning or administration can be likened to Lean management practiced in other service sectors because teaching and administration consist of repetitive transactional processes, in whole or in part.Guidance for the implementation of Lean in tertiary administration and at a lower level in teaching is presented in the book Lean Higher Education, Improving the Value and Performance of University Processes. (Bozkus, 2011).…”