Applying Lean Thinking in An Educational Institute PDF

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
Applying lean thinking in an educational institute – an action research

Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, Gurumurthy Anand, Raju Chockalingam,
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Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, Gurumurthy Anand, Raju Chockalingam, (2017) "Applying lean thinking in an educational
institute – an action research", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management , Vol. 66 Issue: 5, doi:
10.1108/IJPPM-07-2016-0144
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APPLYING LEAN THINKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE
– AN ACTION RESEARCH
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Lean thinking (LT) has been implemented in various manufacturing and service
sectors. But, only a few published research articles have developed a framework describing
the procedure for implementing LT in an educational institute. The purpose of this study is to
develop and demonstrate a framework that can provide a structured procedure for
implementation of LT in an educational institute.
Design/methodology/approach: Various LT tools and techniques applicable in educational

institute were identified by reviewing the relevant literature. By adopting Action Research
Methodology (ARM) for a time period of 28 months, the processes in a case institute were
studied; wastes in the process were identified and various solutions were proposed and
implemented.
Findings: A comparison of the performance measures before (batch 1) and after (batch 2)
implementation of solutions provided interesting insights on the effectiveness of LT. In both
the batches, absenteeism in the class was found to increase across the terms. But the
magnitude of increase was lesser in Batch 2. Results also showed that the number of unfilled
seats (poor utilization) in an elective course in the second year of the program drastically
reduced in Batch 2. Finally, a framework that can guide LT implementation in educational
institutes was proposed.
Research limitations/implications: Current study describes only the initial stages of

implementation in an educational institute. Hence, some of the benefits discussed are
expected in the long run which can be assessed by carrying out a longitudinal study. Future
study can attempt to empirically validate the proposed framework in multiple educational
institutes and theoretically explain the reasons behind the obtained results.
Practical implications: ARM can be used as a tool by practitioners to study the behavioral
aspects of employees of educational institutes towards LT implementation. Proposed
framework and its demonstration can assist employees in educational institutes to implement
LT. Positive results obtained in this study can further motivate the educational institutes to
consider LT as a potential tool for improving the processes.
Originality/value: This is the first study to develop and validate a framework for structured
implementation of LT in processes of an educational institute. The study is also unique in
empirically capturing the impact of LT implementation of an educational institute by
analyzing the archived data.
Keywords: lean thinking, process improvement, education, action research, case study,
framework, implementation, India.
Article Classification: Research paper
1
1. Introduction
Excellence in quality and efficiency in processes have gained significant importance in
educational institutes (Sunder, 2016; Handy, 2002; Doria et al., 2003; Ghoshal, 2003; Grey,
2004). Research studies have documented how educational institutes have catered to this
need by adopting different process improvement philosophies such as total quality
management (Mergen et al., 2000; Mizikaci, 2003; Sahney et al., 2003; Bayraktar et al.,
2008; Sharabi, 2013; etc.), six sigma (Sunder, 2014), lean six sigma (Furterer et al., 2009;
Antony et al., 2012; Antony, 2014; Sunder, 2016), and lean thinking (Comm & Mathaisel,
2005 (a); Comm & Mathaisel, 2005 (b); Maguad, 2007). Total quality management (TQM)
and six sigma philosophies have got structured framework and guidelines to assist in their
adoption and implementation to address a certain objective in a particular context. For
instance, Bayraktar et al. (2008) conducted a thorough review of TQM literature to identify
11 critical areas of TQM in Higher Education institutes (HEI) (e.g. leadership, vision, student
focus, etc.) and constructed an instrument to measure and evaluate the TQM practices in HEI.
Similarly, Sunder (2014) has proposed a six Sigma implementation model for higher
education providers. But even though many educational institutes have seen value in
implementing lean thinking (LT) (refer to literature review section 2.2), none of them have
developed and validated a framework that can guide structured implementation of LT in the
processes of an educational institute. This study addresses this gap by developing a step-by-
step framework with associated lean practices and performance measures. The framework
developed is validated by studying the lean implementation experience of an educational
institute in India using Action Research Methodology (ARM).
Lean implementation in the manufacturing sector has been widely studied. Over past four
decades, researchers have come up with various frameworks and procedures for
implementing lean in manufacturing sector (Stone, 2012; Shah and Ward, 2007). In recent
years, concept of lean has been implemented in diverse service domains such as software
development (Staats et al. 2011, Widman et al. 2010, etc.) and healthcare services (Atkinson
et al. 2012, Martin et al. 2012, LaGanga 2011, Kollberg et al. 2006, etc.) under the
nomenclature of lean thinking (LT). However, studies discussing LT in service domain from
Indian context are very few in number. Further narrowing down, no study in literature has so
far applied LT to Indian education services. In this study, the experience of implementing
various solutions to achieve process improvement in an educational institute (i.e., a business
school in South-India), is documented using the lens of LT. Change in performance measures
such as absenteeism, utilization, and learning before and after LT implementation are also
documented.
1.1. Challenges for Indian Management Education

During the decade 2000 to 2010, the number of universities and colleges in India has grown
more than 100% (See Figure 1).
2
“Insert figure 1 here”
Agarwal (2009) noted that a number of universities and colleges in the formal system of
higher education in India is four times that of higher education institutions in both USA and
Europe. Enrolment of students to these institutes also doubled from the year 2002 to 2007.1
Despite such positive signs, the education sector is facing the following challenges:
a. Although the number of institutes increased rapidly, number of good quality institutes
were less, thereby creating high competition among students for good quality
education (Agarwal, 2009). This was commonly observed across different education
streams including management. Very few good quality management institutes such as
the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) were highly preferred by aspiring
managers.
b. According to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), more than 160
Indian management schools in cities such as Delhi - National Capital Region (NCR),
Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Dehradun were shut down
during 2012 and 2013, due to poor quality and inability to run it at full utilization
(Murray 2014).
c. A recent article in The Economist 2 commented that despite India being the world’s
largest provider of management education, the intake for a quarter of business schools
is fewer than 60 candidates in each annual cohort. All-India Management Association
(AIMA), a national body commented that this class size of 60 to be “abysmally low”.
d. Another important challenge is that the Government of India (GoI) has recently
directed all the premier higher education institutes such as IIMs, Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and central universities
to increase the intake to accommodate more students and also to offer diverse degree
programs and specialization. At the same time, these higher education institutes are
required to pay more attention to the quality of teaching and research (Smeby, 2003;
Bhattacharya, 2010).
Specifically, the last challenge mentioned above is analogous to the scenario in
manufacturing industry, where quality and variety along with cost efficiency (i.e. utilization)
act as order qualifiers. It is difficult for manufacturing firms to sustain in the market by
targeting only one of the order qualifiers i.e. high quality with less variety (standardized
product family), or high variety with less quality (craft manufacturing without efficiency).
Hence, many manufacturing organizations have relied on LT to address it. Taking a cue from
this phenomenon, it is proposed that educational institutes too can address these challenges
by implementing LT.
1
Available at http://data.gov.in/catalog/state-wise-enrolment-through-regular-mode-various-levels#web
_catalog_tabs _block_10 (Last accessed on 04 June 2014).
2
Article titled “The future of Indian business education” dated 26th January 2016 published in The Economist.
Available at http://www.economist.com/whichmba/future-indian-business-education (last accessed on 3rd June
2016).
3
1.2. Motivation
Implementing LT provides an opportunity for educational institutes to improve their
academic and administrative processes and in turn their market competitiveness. Comm and
Mathaisel (2003) supported this claim by stating that application of LT and other cost
reduction strategies have huge potential in the educational sector. They noted that
implementation of lean initiatives will be considered very critical and important for quality
improvement and institute’s sustainability in future. Flumerfelt (2008) mentioned that “it
would be a mistake for educators to dismiss lean without understanding it as LT provides
excellent opportunities to solve the problems such as inadequate funding, ineffective
remediation, and lack of developmental learning opportunities”. Flumerfelt and Green (2013)
stated that LT can be used by schools to improve processes ranging from the core technology
for delivery of instruction to administrative support. Significant potential of LT in the
education sector has attracted consulting firms like Lean Education Enterprise Inc. to get
involved with K-12 schools to implement process improvements. Some of the projects
undertaken by the consulting firm includes instructional time recovery to meet curriculum
goals (resulted in the recovery of 120 hours of instructional time per teacher over a nine-
month period), improving math scores in title-1 school (yielded an average improvement of
116% in the scores), improve the supply chain procurement process to meet district strategic
and funding goals (the district reduced the supply budget by 39.6%, thereby saving taxpayers
money of $174,941 over a period of three years which was used to purchase 200 computers
and also make other investments), meeting standards to achieve 100% accreditation (the
accreditation rate improved from 82% to 88% within 10 weeks of implementing the
improvement program). Both research and practice anecdotally indicate the effectiveness of
LT in improving the processes of an educational institute. This was also one of the
motivations for the authors to carry out a study that documents the implementation of LT
from the Indian context.
Rest of the paper is structured as shown in Figure 2.
2. Literature review
The review is broadly classified into three categories: existing frameworks for LT
implementation in an educational institute, case examples of educational institute
implementing LT, and LT for education/teaching process. The review of existing
frameworks helps us to understand how these frameworks provide necessary guidelines for
implementing LT, while a review of case studies on LT implementation in educational
institutes and in the teaching processes helped us to understand the steps involved, the more
frequently and least frequently used elements, performance metrics monitored, etc.
2.1. Existing frameworks for LT implementation in educational institute

Alp (2001) developed a model showing how the lean principles can be used to transform the
College of Engineering at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a lean organization. The
objective of the model was to identify the ultimate customer, use the Value Stream Mapping
4
(VSM) to remove waste from the system, create flows for the value, pull each element when
needed, and finally to pursue perfection. Comm and Mathesiel (2003) listed the following
nine practices to help colleges and universities in attaining lean sustainability: optimizing the
flow of products and services, provide processes and technologies for seamless and timely
transfer of and access to pertinent data and information, optimize the capability and
utilization of people, implement integrated product and process development teams, develop
relationships based on mutual trust and commitment, continuously focus on the customer,
promote LT at all levels, continuous process improvement, and maximize stability in a
changing environment. Moore et al. (2007) documented the experience of the University of
Central Oklahoma which has embraced the concept of LT on facing significant financial
issues. LT was introduced in the administration area of the institute through a comprehensive
employee training program, creating more efficient job processes, and generating greater job
satisfaction through job improvements. They proposed a 4-step lean enterprise model:
identify the opportunities, solution design, implementation, and continuous improvement.
Hines and Lethbridge (2008) explained the advantages of applying LT to universities and
proposed a lean iceberg model to develop an effective lean enterprise in a university
environment. They applied LT in a client university whose objective was to become a top 50
university. A lean core team was formed to translate the lean value system to an academic
environment.
Some of the gaps identified in the above studies proposing frameworks are listed below:
• Alp (2001) only documented the process flowchart after applying LT and compared
the education procedures followed before and after implementing LT.
• In the case of Comm and Mathaisel (2003), practices listed were not structured to
provide a roadmap and thereby guide the university throughout the process of
implementing LT. Performance measures for assessing the extent of leanness attained
was also not discussed for the various LT practices that were mentioned.
• Moore et al. (2007) did not document the construction of VSM mentioned in the
solution design step. It left the readers with difficulty to understand the application of
lean tools for identifying wastes and solutions. In addition, this study did not appear in
a peer-reviewed journal.
• Hines and Lethbridge (2008) have only reported the experience of a case organization
without discussing much on the lean tools and techniques deployed. They only
proposed a model (Lean Iceberg Model) but failed to validate it in detail using the
experience of the case organization discussed. In this study, Hines and Lethbridge
(2008) also observed that Alp (2001) and Comm and Mathesiel (2005 (a) & (b))
studies have been largely delivered from a theoretical, generalist perspective, without
empirically contextualizing to the context of educational institutes.
• In addition to the above shortcomings, existing literature has not addressed the
following:
o Contextualizing the classic 7 wastes (wastes due to transportation, inventory,
motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects) proposed by
Taiichi Ohno within the education sector.
5
o Selection of lean elements and usage of performance metrics to assess the
improvements attained.
The current study also attempts to fill these gaps.
2.2. Educational institutes implementing LT

Educational institutes such as University of Central Oklahoma, University of Wisconsin –
Madison, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, Miami University, St. Andrews
University, and University of Washington have pursued implementation of LT. Kallam
(2013) described the implementation of LT in these institutes (summary of the description is
provided in Appendix I). In addition, a few researchers have also demonstrated the
implementation of LT in educational institutes without specifying the name of the institutes
(listed in Table 1). Although the potential for implementing LT in educational institutes is
well recognized in both literature and practice, none of the existing studies have shown a step
by step roadmap with procedures to be followed by an educational institute in implementing
LT.
“Insert table 1 here”
2.3. LT for Education/Teaching Process

Table 2 reviews the literature on LT implementation in teaching process with an objective to
improve specific degree programs than the institute’s processes as a whole.
2.4. Research Questions

Based on the detailed review carried out, following research questions (RQ) were identified:
RQ 1: How should an educational institute implement LT? Can a framework (structured

procedure) be developed to assist educational institutes in implementing LT?
RQ 2: What are the wastes prevailing in the processes of educational institute and how they
can be addressed using the tools and techniques of LT?
To answer these RQs, the experience of implementing process improvement in an

educational institute is documented using the lens of LT by adopting ARM.
3. Action Research Methodology (ARM)

ARM was defined by French and Bell (1973) as a “research technique that relies on the
application of the scientific method of fact finding and experimentation to practical problems
requiring action solutions and involving the collaboration of scientists, practitioners, and
laymen”. According to Benbasat et al. (1987), action researcher is a participant and not an
independent observer in a system’s implementation who simultaneously evaluates a certain
intervention technique. Intervention technique in this study is the implementation of process
improvements using the lens of LT in an educational institute. Wood-Harper (1985) state that
6
action research is one among the most effective approaches for technique development.
Similarly, the underlying objective of this study is to propose and demonstrate a framework
for deploying LT for an educational institute. Westbrook (1995) explains action research as a
variant of case research, where a case researcher is an independent observer and action
researcher is a participant observer. In this study, the process improvements were studied by
the author(s), who participated in the implementation. One of the authors was a part of the
deployment team responsible for carrying out process improvements, while the other author
experienced the changes during the implementation by being a student in the batch. Authors
did not interact or influence each other during the implementation period to achieve unbiased
interpretations. This acts as the primary source of data for answering the RQs listed earlier.
Pasmore and Friedlander (1982) stress the value of ARM as a means of generating and
assessing involvement and collaboration of employees on new initiatives. It is a known fact

that implementing LT completely depends on the involvement and collaboration of
employees. Moreover, the objective of this study was to document the implementation of LT
and its impact, ARM was felt to be appropriate for this research. The biggest advantage of
action research is that it emphasizes the importance of understanding the total situation rather
than abstracting it with a few measurable variables. By trading off with objectivity and
rigorous relationship establishment among different variables, it helps in developing broad
conceptual basis leading to theory-building. Pasmore and Friedlander (1982) also mention
that the value of adopting ARM gets enhanced while implementing Japanese management
techniques (or lean thinking) as it involves group problem-solving than few members from
top management solving the problem (Gilmore and Smith, 1996). ARM had much to offer for
this study as the researcher’s role was that of a facilitator than an instigator (Gilmore and
Smith, 1996). Therefore, ARM is chosen as an appropriate method to document the process
and outcome of the implementation of process improvements using LT in an education
institute.
3.1. Overview of the educational institute

Choice of the educational institute for the present study is primarily driven by the research
questions raised. Educational institute selected for ARM is a business school located in
South-India with administrative staff strength of 66 people and student strength of about 750
spread across various programs. Institute comprises of 64 full-time and 26 adjunct faculty
members distributed across 8 academic areas. Institute is 19 years old and has undergone
significant changes over the period of its existence. Institute started with its first batch of 42
students in 1997 and increased the intake to 120 in 2003, 180 in 2005, 261 in 2008, 356 in
2012 and finally to 390 in 2016. Administration of the educational institute chosen had
implemented several process changes in the academic program to improve the effectiveness
of the processes delivering value to students. Motivation to implement process changes, in
both core and non-core processes were to reduce the non-value adding tasks and lean wastes.
This enhances the relevance of applicability of ARM, which is usually guaranteed by
working with management on an issue that the enterprise (educational institute in our study)
is self-motivated to address (Westbrook, 1995).
7
The major functional areas in the institute are Admission, Alumni management, Institute
administration, Academic administration, Student affairs (scheduling and student body
election coordination), Placement, and Research. Institute offers various programs such as
postgraduate program (PGP) in management, management development program (MDP),
faculty development program (FDP), executive post graduate program (EPGP) and fellow
program in management (FPM). PGP is considered as the flagship course offered for two
years on-campus. It comprises of six terms distributed equally across both the years. PGP is
offered as a general management program, but students can customize their choice of
electives to specialize in marketing, operations, finance, accounting, strategy, information
systems, human resource (HR), etc. EPGP is predominantly an off-campus version of PGP
offered as a two-year course for employed candidates who can take a major portion of the
course through Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) platform. EPGP participants can attend
the classes from the designated classroom centers at various locations and participate in the
proceedings through two-way audio/video synchronous telecommunication channel. MDP is
offered on a more focused topic for a shorter period of time – ranging from three days to
three months - to people employed in organizations. FDP is offered for faculty members of
other institutes for a shorter period of time - one week to a month – on a more specific area of
relevance. EPGP also includes various one-year certificate programs for specializations such
as marketing, strategy, etc. while MDP and FDP offer programs of diverse nature. FPM is a
doctoral course designed for a normal period of 4 years where the student completes course
work for first two years and works on a dissertation for next two years.
3.2. Utilizing ARM in the educational institute

Table 3 presents the timeline of this research study and table 4 details the steps followed in
applying action research methodology to answer the research questions raised.
The incoming batch size of 356 students during the year 2012 is considered as a reference as
the study was planned during this year. The process improvements were continued in
subsequent years and the corresponding changes were documented with necessary data to
analyze “before” and “after” scenarios.
4. Experience of LT implementation
The experience of implementing process improvement in an educational institute using the
lens of LT is documented below. A step-by-step description of the implementation
experience helps in easy understanding and it is expected to ease the implementation of LT in
other educational institutions in future.
Step 1 – Understanding various processes and stakeholders in an educational institute

This was accomplished by utilizing tools such as supplier-input-process-output-customer
(SIPOC) model and Process flow diagram.
8
SIPOC model: Table 5 shows the SIPOC model for the case organization. SIPOC has been
borrowed from the tools of Six Sigma to understand the list of processes and stakeholders
involved in the institute at a much broader level. Educational institutes are creating managers
(Output) by performing knowledge work (Process) to add intellectual value to students
(Input). Definition of a customer is not explicit in the case of educational institutions (Kay et
al., 1997). Studies have discussed students, future employers, society (i.e., taxpayers) and
other beneficiaries of the educational operations of the institution as customers. In this study,
recruiters are being considered as customers for the institute, as students of flagship program
from the management institute are delivered to industries to satisfy their requirements.

Understanding the Processes at Macro Level using Process Flow Diagram: Efforts were
made to understand the various key processes of the entire educational institute at a macro
level. Hence, a simple process flow chart was constructed as it helps in understanding the
linkages between the processes. Some of the processes comprised of various sub-
processes/functions such as admissions, summer internship, learning, etc. Various stages
present in the broad process flow chart of the entire educational institute are linked as shown
in Figure 3.
Students interested in pursuing the flagship program ( the equivalent of MBA) make an
application and write Common Aptitude Test (CAT). Based on the score obtained in CAT,
students are shortlisted for Group Discussion (GD) and interview. Finally, students are
admitted based on their performance in GD and interview. After the orientation program,
students begin their learning process by attending classes. At the end of the second year, after
successfully completing the flagship program course, students receive their graduation
certificate and become alumni of the institute. Interactions between all these processes and
suppliers (both core and non-core), institute management, industries, etc. are shown in Figure
3.
Process Selection at the Overall Organization Level: Various stakeholders from different
stages of the model can be involved in the construction of the process flow diagram. Potential
stakeholders could include a representative from top management such as director, deans,
students, institute employees (both academic (faculty) and administrative (staff) employees),
industry representatives, and government representatives (in board of governors). Similar to a
product family (comprising of a variety of products with slight changes in the features,
components, etc.) in a manufacturing company, an educational institute offers various types
of degree programs such as PGP, EPGP, FPM, etc. Each of these degree programs is different
in their structure and processes as they cater to different needs of the market. Generally, a
process associated with a product family that adds maximum value to the organization is
chosen for lean implementation. In this study, the processes associated with the flagship
program are studied. This program utilizes the maximum amount of physical resources of the
9
institute and hence contains the huge potential for the application of LT to establish flow,
eliminate waste, save the resource, and add value. Utilizing the process selection framework
proposed by Narayanamurthy and Anand (2014) also revealed that flagship program is the
best candidate for LT implementation. Students, Office staff, members of the faculty, etc.
were identified as stakeholders for the program chosen. Figure 4 captures all the processes
that a student undergoes after joining the flagship program. This program involves three
terms per year with summer internship program for two months between 1st and 2nd year.
Several process activities associated with each process are listed in Figure 4. For instance,
elective bidding for all three terms in the second year is performed in term 3 of the first year.
Processes in the institute are cyclic in nature and repeat on term/yearly basis.

Step 2 – Value Stream Mapping (VSM) of a specific process

To reduce the complexity, only those processes involved in a single term were chosen from
Figure 4. An attempt was made to develop a VSM for the set of processes prevailing at single
term level. Difficulty was faced in providing quantitative data for each process on lead time,
throughput, delay, etc., as there was no clear-cut boundary between different processes.
Hence, the conventional way of developing VSM as prescribed by Rother and Shook (2003)
based on the flow and discontinuity in assembly process was suitably modified to address this
issue. A rough cut VSM for a single term is shown in Figure 5 and details of each process in
the single term are listed in Table 6. Table 6 documents the prerequisite, process lead time,
process time, and number of people involved in individual sub-processes.
Every term comprises of a specific number of hours of teaching sessions for each of the
courses, mostly distributed over three months. Usually, on a given day, three sessions before
lunch and two sessions after lunch of 75 minutes each was scheduled. Quizzes (if any) were
scheduled post-lunch, before the start of the afternoon sessions. Second-year sessions were
usually scheduled for two hours with a ten-minute break in between and in average three
sessions were scheduled per day. Each credit requires a process time of ten hours. For
example, a course of three credits will have up to 30 hours of sessions and course of two
credits will have up to 20 hours of the session. Scheduling process takes care of providing a
gap to students for course preparation before attending the session. The stakeholders would
include PGP students, PGP office staff, faculties handling courses, teaching assistants,
student body's and interest groups, library, etc.
Step 3 - Identify different types of wastes

As a result of the thorough study carried out, wastes in terms of non-value adding tasks were
listed for each of the sub-processes identified at the single term level. Table 7 lists the
different types of wastes identified at each of the sub-processes activities. As mentioned
10
earlier, the 7 wastes proposed by Taiichi Ohno has been contextualized within the domain of
the educational institute.
Step 4 - Identify lean solutions to eliminate the wastes

Solutions proposed to remove the wastes and non-value adding activities in different sub-
processes at the single term level are mentioned in Table 8.
Table 8 also maps the solution proposed to the existing tools and practices of LT. Some of the
solutions listed in Table 8 are detailed below:
Scheduling
• Faculty members should be involved in the process of scheduling their classes. They can
make use of the information on available slots to schedule the classes. This will also
make them aware of open slots that can be used for rescheduling in future. This reduces
the rescheduling lead time and also the number of reworks in future. The proposed
solution can be implemented through online timetable sheet accessible to instructors,
teaching assistants, program office and students. Same online timetable can also be used
to display the schedules of quizzes, midterm, and end term examinations.
• Changes made by faculty members to the schedule will be automatically notified to the
program office and students. This makes the scheduling process live and interfaced with
all involved. This solution also replaces the present system of sending emails for alerting
students about rescheduling of classes, and schedules of quizzes, midterm, and end term
examinations.
• Entire term timetable for three months can be released. Changes incorporated in the
online timetable can be tracked using different color codes.
• The schedule should also consider common students between different courses while
allotting venues to ensure minimum movement between venues and gaps between
sessions.
• The schedule can distribute classes uniformly throughout the term by attempting to
schedule only three classes before lunch on every weekday. These solutions are expected
to provide additional time for academic preparation and participation in other co-
curricular & extra-curricular activities for students.
Learning management systems such as Moodle, Blackboard, etc. can be used for sharing
information such as course outline, pedagogy, session plan, etc. to students to help them in
making an informed decision in their elective choices. In addition, this portal also updates
faculty members on courses offered by their colleagues. This could assist them in designing
new courses without content overlap. This would also help faculty members to integrate
11
concepts from other related courses in their teaching sessions, thereby assisting students to
connect the learnings from different courses.
Feedback
• Online feedback system would remove the wastes of current hardcopy system, such as
usage of paper resources and manual data inputting. Flexibility to provide feedback from
other places, in addition to classrooms can increase the feedback percentage.
Implementation of this solution helps in reducing the cycle time and lead time, resources
utilized (both paper and human resources), defects, and reworks by directly collecting the
data in softcopy for analysis.
Assessment
• Online examination portals to conduct time bound quizzes are proposed. They can
automatically evaluate the responses submitted by students and display the results
immediately. At the end, a database with all the scores will be created automatically for
grading. Time bound descriptive exams can also be conducted using online portals.
• Reworks can be reduced by displaying the grades obtained in each component in the
online portal immediately after their evaluation. This solution reduces the waiting for
identifying the defects as the information is shared as and when generated. In the previous
system, both cumulative and individual component grades were published in the online
portal only after the end-term exam.
• Standardization of assessment components and weights are proposed for the similar
courses even if handled by different faculty members.
Implementation of the proposed solutions helps in reducing the cycle time, resources used,
etc. by implementing information sharing, poka-yoke, and process standardization. There is
no transfer of hard copy answer scripts between program office and the concerned course
instructor for evaluation. Online examination portal directly delivers the softcopy answer
scripts to the instructor for evaluation after the completion of the exam. Grades attained after
evaluation can be directly uploaded online for students information. Online display of grades
helps in workload smoothing. Corrections will be incorporated instantaneously after
receiving the feedback from the student.
Grading
• The solution proposed in the assessment process to display the component grades in
online portal enables immediate correction in defects and thereby avoids complete
reworking and delay in grading process at later stages.
• Faculty members can be made to access directly the online portals to enter the evaluations
and final grades with the help of teaching assistants. Changes (if any) after releasing the
grades can also be incorporated by faculty members themselves as this might reduce the
possibility of occurrence of defects. Program office and students can have access to view
the changes that have been incorporated.
12
As explained under the assessment process above, implementation of the solutions proposed
would lead to the adoption of lean practices such as information sharing, fast feedback, the
involvement of student and instructors, workload smoothing, etc.
Other solutions
Some of the solutions proposed above require the adoption of software packages such as
Learning Management Solution (LMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), etc. customized
to an education institute. They are costly and require significant time before it can be put into
action. Hence, some of the low hanging solutions were implemented in the institute with the
help of the available resources. A list of the same is presented below:
• Websites demanding multiple logins were combined together under a single page with
a single login.
• A fixed timetable was created with various logics such as a 3 credit course having 30
hours of sessions would be scheduled on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while a 2
credit course would be scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday every week. Thus,
sessions were uniformly distributed, as much as possible, throughout the term with
three sessions per day for five days in a week.
• All the quizzes were scheduled on Saturdays to ensure smooth flow of sessions in
weekdays.
• Minimum movement of students and professors was achieved by scheduling
subsequent sessions in the same or nearby classroom.
• All the course outlines of the approved elective courses were gathered and uploaded
in the online portal.
• Course assessment components and weights of similar courses handled by different
faculty members were standardized. This enabled faculty members to review course
outlines of other related courses and design his/her course outline with minimum
overlap. This helped students to plan their choices of electives by understanding why
certain course needs to be taken and how it connects with courses already taken and to
be taken in future.
• Additional hours were scheduled for each course in the beginning of the scheduling
process to provide for unexpected class cancellations. This was informed to students
while communicating the entire schedule. This helped in removing the last minute
difficulties in finding a slot for canceled sessions.
• Additional sessions, canceled sessions, and conducted sessions were color coded in
the online sheet by the program office. This ensured that students were aware of the
entire schedule in the beginning including the additional sessions.
• Paperless online feedback system was pilot tested for a term (term 3 of batch 2). It
significantly reduced man hours required for collecting the feedback, loading the
feedback scores into an excel sheet, etc. It also decreased the missing feedbacks and
maximized the number of students providing their feedbacks.
13
Step 5 - Identify and compare the change in performance measures for the process
studied.
Data was collected from the administration of the case institute for two batches of students
(named as batch 1 and batch 2). Batch 1 represents ‘before LT implementation’ and Batch 2
represents ‘post-LT implementation’. Data were collected from the administrative office on
the student attendance (for identifying absenteeism), elective choice, feedback and grades for
both the batches. The comparison was carried out between both the batches to understand the
impact of process improvement solutions implemented.
Table 9 documents the increase in absenteeism across terms between Batch 1 and Batch 2.
Absenteeism here indicates the sum of number of sessions (each 75 minutes) missed by
students across all the courses in a particular term. For instance, 4535 sessions were missed
by students of Batch 1 in all the courses of Term 1. In both the batches, number of
absenteeism was found to increase across the terms. However, it was found that the amount
of increase has reduced in Batch 2.
Next interesting inference that was noticed across the terms between the batches was that the
number of unfilled seats in an elective course in the second year of the program drastically
reduced in Batch 2 (as shown in table 10). Availability of all the elective course outlines with
the students provided them with an opportunity to make an informed decision by discussing
with other students and focus their bidding points on certain specific courses. Thus, it can be
found that the courses which finally got subscribed had minimum unfilled seats in Batch 2 in
comparison to Batch 1, thereby increasing the utilization of individual courses.
Table 11 compares the missed feedback responses across the terms between the two batches.
Feedback responses were obtained for faculty members of a course in a term. For instance, if
the same course in a classroom is shared between two instructors’, students of that section
have to fill two feedback forms, one for each faculty member. The feedback scores of
multiple faculty members handling the same course was averaged to obtain a single score for
the course. The total number of feedback responses was calculated by multiplying the number
of courses in a term with the number of students. Missed feedback responses were
comparatively lesser in Batch 2 due to the effect of some of the lean solutions implemented.
The current study describes only the initial stages of implementation in the educational
institute and some of the benefits discussed are expected in future by implementing the rest of
the proposed solutions. Table 12 lists the performance measures specific to the process
chosen as well as those measures that are common in all the process (in the last row). Due to
the inability to track the data on these measures, analysis of these measures is not reported in
14
this study. It is recommended that educational institutes implementing LT in teaching process
can consider these proposed metrics and record relevant data from the beginning of the
project.
5. Framework for LT implementation in educational institutes

As shown in Figure 6, the framework proposed to adopt LT in the process of an educational
institute comprises of five steps. These steps are to be followed in sequence to implement LT.

Step 1 - Construction of process flow diagram of the entire organization: Identify the
stakeholders of the entire organization. This helps in understanding the holistic picture of the
entire organization. This step also exposes various function areas, associated processes,
interdependency between processes and function areas in a bigger picture at the organization
level thereby would assist in attaining systemic improvement than local improvement.
Include as much as quantitative and qualitative data at each process in the diagram that would
help in the analysis to be performed in step 2.
Step 2 - Construct the process flow diagram of a specific process to be studied

A process from Step 1 needs to be selected for further analysis. Specific stakeholders related
to the selected process have to be involved. Stakeholder map constructed in Step 1 would
help in identifying the process specific stakeholders. Process selected can be further split into
sub-processes based on the complexity involved and a suitable sub-process can be selected
for LT application. A detailed process flow diagram of the selected process has to be
constructed with in-depth qualitative and quantitative details. Qualitative and quantitative
details would help in identifying wastes and quantification of benefits using performance
metrics.
Step 3 - Identify different types of wastes present in the final process constructed
From the data provided in process flow diagram and by direct observation, different types of
wastes that are prevailing at different levels of the process have to be identified. Seven wastes
proposed within lean manufacturing can be suitably adapted to the context of LT in services
as some of the wastes mentioned in manufacturing were not directly relevant to the context of
educational institute. A modified set of six wastes identified in particular to this context were
rework, motion, waiting, overprocessing, overproduction, and defects. The new waste
introduced in this study namely ‘rework’ differs from the traditional waste ‘defects’. Defects
that can be rectified can be categorized under reworks whereas those which cannot be
rectified can be categorized directly under defects. For example, incorrect grading in the
assessment step can be rectified by correcting the mistakes and changes can be notified to
both the students and concerned administration. Hence, this can be called as rework.
Absenteeism of students for sessions, incorrect questions in a quiz identified after it has been
conducted, incorrect or non-availability of reading materials for a session, etc. are some of
15
the mistakes that cannot be rectified as the event has already occurred. Hence, these wastes
will be categorized under defects. The quantum of wastes needs to be measured as it plays a
significant role in achieving continuous improvement of the process.
Step 4 - Identify solution and apply lean practices and tools to eliminate the wastes
identified.
Lean tools and practices can be selected from already existing comprehensive list. In
addition, LT being a flexible methodology, its implementers can adapt the existing tools and
practices to be more specific and applicable in the context of educational institutes. Once the
solutions are proposed, future state VSM is constructed. The solutions might help in creating
flow and on achieving the results based on the implementation of basic tools, the institute can
focus on implementing other advanced tools that can help in achieving pull.
Step 5 - Compare the change in performance measures & pursue continuous

improvement.
Performance measures play a significant role in understanding the success of implementation
of LT. Moreover, it helps in understanding the current situation and also provides the
roadmap for continuous improvement based on the present or existing process performance
measures. The benefits harvested can also be compared by evaluating the performance
measures before and after the implementation of LT. Identification of performance metrics
usually is left to the choice of implementers and completely depends on the nature of process
studied. After comparing the benefits, all the processes (including the one to which LT was
applied) need to be analyzed and one process needs to be selected again to repeat from step 2-
5 to pursue perfection through furthering kaizen (continuous improvement).
5.1. Coherence of the framework with five tenets of lean

The implementation framework proposed in this study specifically modified for the context
of educational institute is in alignment with the five tenets of lean proposed by Womack et al.
(1990) which include:
Tenet 1. Identify Customers and Specify Value,
Tenet 2. Identify and Map the Value Stream,
Tenet 3. Create Flow by Eliminating Waste,
Tenet 4. Respond to Customer Pull, and
Tenet 5. Pursue Perfection.
Steps 1 and 2 of the proposed framework dealt with specifying which service/output/program
creates value and listed out all the steps along the process chain which forms the first two
tenets (Tenets 1 and 2). Steps 3 and 4 of the proposed framework are related to the Tenets 3
and 4. It helps in identifying the wastes i.e. non-value adding activities from the customers’
perspective and suggest the practitioner to suitably use lean practices as solutions to eliminate
the wastes identified. The final step of the proposed framework dealt with assessment of the
improvements attained by measuring the changes in performance metrics. Thus, Step 5 is in
alignment with the last tenet of lean (Tenet 5). As the steps within the process of lean
implementation move back and forth and also circles within the five tenets of lean, the
proposed five-step framework also moves back and forth while implementing LT and circles
16
within while progressing with LT implementation from one process to another (as shown in
Figure 7). Moreover, the proposed framework clearly explains the relevant tools and
techniques of LT for each stage of implementation. Proposed framework is also in alignment
with the Define Measure Analyse Improve and Control (DMAIC) framework used in Six
Sigma. Define is performed by Step 1 and 2, Measure and analyze is addressed by Step 3, and
finally, Steps 4 and 5 is related to the phases of Improve, and Control. Some of the tools that
can be borrowed at different steps from the armory of DMAIC and LT are listed in Figure 7.
In addition, Figure 7 documents the correspondence of the tenets of lean and DMAIC with
five steps of the proposed framework.

6. Conclusion
A literature review revealed the absence of a study describing the implementation of LT in
education sector from the Indian context. Research has not been pursued to develop a step by
step detailed procedure to implement LT in the education sector. Hence in this study, by
using ARM, the experience of implementing LT in an educational institute was documented.
Based on the experience, a detailed framework has been proposed for implementing LT in
educational institutes. This answers the RQ1 raised in the beginning of this paper. In response
to RQ2, the current study has identified the general set of wastes and performance metrics
that an educational institute should consider while implementing LT.
6.1. Research Implications & Limitations

A comprehensive literature on LT in education sector documented in this study can act as a
ready reckoner for future research. The study is first to empirically capture the impact of LT
implementation on an educational institute by analyzing its archival data. The study is also
first to document and demonstrate the implementation of LT in processes of an educational
institute and propose an empirically grounded framework, especially from an Indian context.
The implementation framework proposed in this study is also in alignment with the five
tenets of lean and DMAIC.
Limitation of the proposed framework is its generalizability as the framework is developed

from the experience of a single institute. To improve the generalizability of the proposed
framework, future study can attempt to empirically validate by applying it in multiple
educational institutes. The current study is also limited by only documenting the initial
experience of lean implementation in an educational institute. Future study can document the
effect of LT implementation by studying its impact over a longer period of time. Studies in
future can consider several other performance metrics (listed in Table 12) for evaluation of
improvements attained through LT implementation in an educational institute. In addition,
ARM based research can be extended to study the behavioral aspects of employees of
educational institutes towards LT implementation to identify the drivers and barriers of lean
implementation.
17
6.2. Practical Implications
The study develops a comprehensive framework for assisting practitioners in implementing
LT in an educational institute. A step-by-step description of the implementation experience is
expected to help in easy imitation of the framework in other educational institutions in future.
Demonstration of tools such as process flow diagram, SIPOC, rough cut VSM, etc. can assist
practitioners in deploying the same while implementing LT. Mapping of inefficiencies in the
case institute’s processes to lean wastes and addressing the wastes using different lean tools
and practices can act as a lookup table for practitioners. Practitioners are introduced to a
diverse set of performance measures for evaluating the impact of LT implementation in an
educational institute. Positive results obtained in this study can encourage the educational
institutes to consider LT as a potential tool for improving processes.
Acknowledgement
An initial version of this work titled “Lean thinking in education: A case study approach”
was presented in 2013 Lean Educator Conference (LEC 2013), 3-5 October 2013, Columbus,
Ohio, USA (Organized by Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, Columbus,
Ohio, USA). Updated version of the paper titled “Lean Implementation in Educational
Institute – A Study Based on Action Research Methodology” was presented in 2015 Annual
Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute, 21-24 November, Seattle, USA. We thank the
reviewers and participants of the above-mentioned conferences for their valuable suggestions,
which have resulted in significant improvement in comparison to the initial versions.
18
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Biographical Details
21
Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy is currently pursuing his Fellow (Doctoral) Program in
Management in Quantitative Methods and Operations Management (QM & OM) area in
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK), Kerala, India. He is also a Fulbright-
Nehru Doctoral Research Scholar from Carlson School of Management. His research area is
assessment of process improvements in the context of healthcare.
Anand Gurumurthy is an Associate Professor in the area of “Quantitative Methods and

Operations Management (QM&OM)” at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
(IIMK), Kerala, India. Prior to this appointment, he was an Assistant Professor with the
Mechanical Engineering Department of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS)
Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan, India, where he also completed his PhD in the area of Lean
Manufacturing and ME in Manufacturing Systems Engineering. He received his BE in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India. He has around 13 years of
teaching/research experience. He started his career as a Production Engineer with one of
India’s leading industrial houses – the TVS Group. He has published around 40 papers in
peer-reviewed national and international journals such as International Journal of Production
Research, Production Planning & Control, Journal of Manufacturing Technology
Management, etc. He has also presented many papers in various national/international
conferences. His current research interests include application of lean thinking in other
sectors, humanitarian supply chain management and unique applications of multi-criteria
decision making models.
Raju Chockalingam is a Professor in the area of “Quantitative Methods and Operations

Management (QM&OM)” at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK), Kerala,
India. Before joining IIMK, he was a Professor in Quantitative Methods and Operations
Research in SDM Institute of Management Development, Mysore, Karnataka, India. He was
also a Visiting Professor at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A
during January to February 2001. He has around 32 years of teaching/research experience. He
also played a key role in the administration as Chairperson, Public Relations Officer, etc. in
those educational institutions he is associated with. His research interests are in the areas of
improving education systems, blended learning, acceptance sampling, partial least square
(PLS) regression, and econometrics. He has published many papers in peer-reviewed journals
and has presented his research in variety of international and national forums.
22

FIGURES
30000 120%
25000 100%
80%
20000
60%
15000
40%
% increase
10000
20%
Number of institutions
5000 0%
0 -20%
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Year
Number of institutions University/Colleges % increase with 2000-01 as the base year
Figure 1: Growing number of educational institutions (university/colleges) in India 1
1
Graph constructed using data on Educational Institutions, Scholars and Expenditure (All India). Data available at http://data.gov.in/catalog/educational-institutions-scholars-
and-expenditure-all-india#web_catalog _tabs_block_10 (last accessed on 09 August 2014).
Figure 2: Structure of the paper
2
Interview and Admission,

Entrance Exam Alumni of the
Group Registration and Orientation PGP Course Graduation Day
(CAT) institute
Discussion Inauguration
Figure 3: Process Flow Diagram of the entire educational institute
3
TERM 1 TERM 2 TERM 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6

Summer
(8 Subjects) (8 Subjects) (8 Subjects) (15-18 (12-18 (12-15
Internship
(20.5 Credits) (20.5 Credits) (20.5 Credits) Credits) Credits) Credits)
Intra-College Student Body Summer Inter-college Intra-College Final

Elective Student Body Inter-college
Cultural Elections Placement Cultural Cultural Placement
Bidding Elections Cultural Event
Event Process Event Event Process
Figure 4: Detailed process flow chart of the flagship program
4
Resultant list of
students for
individual courses
(after bidding
process in second
Teaching
year) Material
Sessions by Assessment of
Procurement
Faculties the Course
Scheduling and Distribution
(10 times the Feedback of the (Quizzes,
(Reading and
(Time Table credit of the course and projects,
Case Materials of faculty from Grading
Prepared for all course floated is presentations,
respective
the courses) equal to the students discussions, mid-
courses procured
number of hours term and end
and distributed to
the course is to term)
students)
be taught)
Available
schedule of
faculty members
offering the
courses
Successful completion of the term and moving to next term
Figure 5: Rough cut VSM for single term process of the flagship program
(Note: It should be read in tandem with Table 6 depicting rough cut VSM)
5
Figure 6: Five step framework for LT implementation in an educational institute
6
Figure 7: Relationship of the five-step framework with tenets and DMAIC and possible tools for its implementation
7

TABLES
Table 1: Review of the articles discussing lean in educational institute

Authors Remarks Elements (lean principles, practices and performance measures)
Studied the application of the concepts Factors: Budget allocation, compensation package, competitive trends, vision
of lean and sustainability to higher communication, customer feedback, employee empowerment, institutional
Comm & Mathaisel
education by collecting data using a culture, leadership philosophy, organizational structure, supplier relationships,
(2005 (a))
questionnaire from 18 public and private and technology. Data was also collected on the adoption of nine overarching
universities. practices discussed in Comm and Mathesiel (2003).
Drivers: State funding cuts, increasing enrollment numbers, union contracts,
overall state of the economy, increasing demands of applicants for
continuously improving campus amenities and perceived quality beyond the
classroom.
Surveyed 18 public and private Initiatives: Outsourcing, collaborative efforts, use of technology, use of excess
universities representatives by capabilities (physical plant space, services, network bandwidth, and
administering an open-ended qualitative professional expertise), reduction and elimination of duplicate effort, staff
Comm & Mathaisel
questionnaire and identified best lean reductions, closing non‐core operations, feedback through survey and
(2005 (b))
practices at the institutional level, which benchmarking, open communication and dialogue, centralized purchasing and
were felt to contribute to the vendor management, streamlined online human resources systems,
sustainability of their universities. encouraging customer involvement in lean initiatives, etc.
Metrics: Schools pointed to the importance of ratios such as endowment per
student, annual cost per student, square footage space per student, and
technology usage per student. It was also noticed that there were no global
standards in metrics to follow.
Used LT for eliminating wastes in the Various LT practices were discussed, while include 5S (can be implemented in
educational sector to cut costs and supply rooms or storage rooms), mistake proofing (preventing a student from
Maguad (2007)
ultimately improve teaching and learning going forward if the prerequisites are not satisfied such as stopping from
activities in schools. registering for a course when not eligible, device to shut off office or

classroom lights), VSM (no quantification of process metrics, only captures the
process flow), quick changeover, self-inspection, total productive maintenance,
kaizen, and teamwork environment. The paper gives a general description of
these practices and explains the need for LT in educational institutes. The
experience of implementing these practices in the context of educational
institute context was not discussed.
Improved the “discipline” process in the
school by adapting and implementing
Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Discipline
process comprises of several sub-
processes that work together to achieve
Used both lean and six sigma tools such as DMAIC, SIPOC, Pareto charts,
Furterer et al. an environment conducive to quality
process mapping, voice of customer surveys, voice of process matrix, quality
(2009) learning. Some of the practices
function deployment, etc.
considered were minimizing classroom
disruptions, minimize school discipline
referrals, level of knowledge of the
student code of conduct, and consistency
of offenses and actions.
Focused on the implementation of LT to
improve the efficiency of admissions Some of the lean principles implemented are standard operation procedure
office which handles the admission of (recommended the modification of graduate and undergraduate catalogues),
domestic, international, graduate, load balancing (Heijunka) (new way of work distribution among the employees
Jin and Kachroo
undergraduate, freshman and transfer was proposed), flow (implement lean principles in other departments on which
(2010)
students. The reason for implementing admissions office relies for processing), continuous improvement (suggestions
LT is that the efficiency of this were made to conduct surveys on student satisfaction with the admissions
department’s work affects the enrollment office).
and student retention at the university.
Analyzed how principles of LT can be Following enablers/ barriers were identified: organizational culture &
adapted to a higher education context by structures, awareness, and change capacity. Using these enablers and barriers,
Langer (2011)
studying three UK universities. the level of organization readiness was evaluated. The impact of LT was
Qualitative methods, namely semi- assessed through performance measures such as efficiency improvement (staff
2

structured interviews and document time savings), cost savings, lead time reduction, WIP reduction (queue length
analysis were used and it was inferred in services), quality/fewer defects, customer satisfaction, employee
that LT can be applied with less satisfaction, and cultural change.
spectacular results than in manufacturing
Issues/Barriers: Problem with the lean terminologies, lack of systems
perspective, lean is viewed as quick‐fix, lack of cultural readiness, lack of
communication, lack of resources (time, budget, etc.), and a weak link between
the continuous improvement projects and the strategic objectives.
Critically evaluated whether LSS can be
Critical success factors: Top management support, effective communication,
a powerful business improvement
strategic and visionary leadership, developing organizational readiness,
Antony et al. methodology for improving the
resources and skills to facilitate implementation, project selection and
(2012) efficiency and effectiveness of higher
prioritization, and knowledge on tools and techniques (VSM, cause & effect
education institutions by using
analysis, visual management, Pareto analysis, project charter, SIPOC, Rapid
secondary data from the literature.
Improvement Workshop (RIW)).
Although a comprehensive list of success factors for implementing LSS was
identified, the contextual adaptation of LSS for the educational institute is not
provided.
Identified the pre-requisites (i.e.,
readiness factors) for successful
Readiness factors: leadership and vision, management commitment and
Antony et al. implementation of an LSS initiative in
resources, linking LSS to university’s strategy, customer focus, and selecting
(2014) higher education sector based on the
the right people.
existing literature and authors’
experiences.
Factors differentiating education institutes from manufacturing units:
Market perspectives, Customer definition, Defect detection, Unevenness,
Measurement system, Inseparability, and People perspectives.
Applied LSS in a university library
Sunder (2016) process and discussed the value that LSS
Principles, tools, and practices: Failure mode and effects analysis, Kaizen,
can bring to the higher education system.
refined workflow, improved employee and customer satisfaction, breeding
excitement for future improvements, training, student-centric approach, student
engagement, student flagging, root cause analysis, DMAIC, PDCA, etc.
3
Performance indicators: University ranking, number of research papers

published per department, quality of research, pass percentage of students in a
class, turnaround time of different processes, overall student satisfaction score,
laboratory equipment availability, college maintenance and infrastructure
metrics, food wastage in University cafeteria, computer systems downtime at
colleges, number of students placed at corporate jobs, salary range of passed
students from the University, faculty members’ standard of teaching, student’s
absenteeism, accuracy of medical prescriptions at University clinics, paper
consumption in photocopying department, facilities at college gymnasium and
sports center, residential facilities at hostel rooms, and effectiveness of
accreditation process, etc.
4
Table 2: Review of articles describing lean in teaching process

Five core principles: (a) identifying aspects of the educational
service learners regarded as value, (b) mapping the value stream to
understand the different educational services provided by the
Discussed five core values of LT that may be applied to
institution, (c) steady flow of educational services without the
Cookson (2003) the improvement and evaluation of network-based
periodic strain of responding to peak periods and relatively low
distance education systems.
periods, (d) increased speed with which the educational services
flow from the institution to the learners (pull), and (e) perfection in
terms of high quality of educational services.
Emiliani (2004) Studied the design and delivery of a graduate business Lean principle/practices implemented were continuous
course on leadership for the part-time working improvement, 5S, just-in-time, load smoothing, standard work,
professional students apart from describing the visual controls and respect for people.
application of lean principles and practices to improve
course consistency.
Emiliani (2005) Used kaizen to improve the processes for ten courses It helped in improving the purpose and course objectives, attributes
contained in a part-time executive master’s degree of content, organization and sequence, and classroom experience.
program in management.
Emiliani (2006) Suggested 11 practical improvement areas for LT practices and tools implemented were problem recognition, root
correcting deficiencies in courses and degree programs cause analysis and countermeasures, results-only focus versus focus
and also proposed an improved Master of Business on the process to achieve results as well as results, value added and
Administration (MBA) curriculum. waste, performance metrics, and respect for people.
Stratton et al. Utilized lean production from industry to improve the Following are the list of practices implemented: (1) Systematic
(2007) medical education process by introducing hybrid quality control, (2) consistency of evaluation, (3) systems to
curricular quality-assurance governance structure at the establish ongoing student and faculty input, responsibilities, and
University of Kentucky College of Medicine. budgeting, (4) unrestricted and timely flow of data to key decision-
makers at both the institutional and individual levels, and (5) robust,
accurate, and comprehensive means of monitoring system
performance
Doman (2011) Used lean principles and practices to improve Identified four wastes: over processing or incorrect processing,
university’s grade change processes. correction and knowledge disconnection.
5

Practices: Process mapping, VSM, and A3 methodology (consisted
of theme, background, current condition, cause analysis, target
condition, implementation plan, and follow-Up).
Performance measures: Number of grade changes, cycle time and

number of disapprovals from college/school and instructor.
Described the use of continuous improvement to The performance measures considered were (a) Ratio of time
Flumerfelt & achieve instructional and instructional technology allocated to task/relational activities and to passive/active learning,
Green (2013) improvement with the help of an example of a high and (b) Amount of time allocated to a new learning opportunity,
school. individualization, and differentiation.
6
Table 3: Timeline of research study
Time Period Event Remarks
New
Participant observation began from this stage. Processes in the
academic
June 2012 institute were experienced just like any other stakeholders in
year
the system.
begins
July 2012 – Term 1 of
October 2012 year 1
In all these three terms of the program, observer(s) got
October 2012 – Term 2 of
introduced to the system and its functioning. Repetition of
January 2013 year 1
terms provided with multiple similar experiences.
January 2013 – Term 3 of
March 2013 year 1
April 2013 – Summer

-
May 2013 break
New
PGP academic program administration decided to implement
incoming
June 2013 process improvements in the system to improve its efficiency.
batch
These changes were experienced by the new incoming batch.
enrollment
July 2013 – Term 1 of
In all these three terms of the program, observer(s)
October 2013 year 2
experienced the process changes implemented to improve its
October 2013 – Term 2 of
efficiency. Repetition of terms provided with multiple similar
January 2014 year 2
experiences and thereby helped in replicating and
January 2014 – Term 3 of
triangulating the patterns observed.
March 2014 year 2
April 2013 – Summer
-
May 2013 break
Informal documentation which was carried out by the
participant observer(s) during the study period was organized
into patterns and related contents were grouped together for
June 2014 – Data
easy inference. Data such as attendance, feedback, etc. of the
October 2014 collection
first year of the two batches was obtained from the program
office. Data obtained was cleaned and subjected to analysis to
answer the research questions raised.
Table 4: Details on action research methodology adopted (Based on steps proposed by
Westbrook, 1995)
S. Step Summary
No.
1 Decide broad area of Investigate the experience and procedure of implementing
investigation LT in an educational institute.
2 Design Research ARM was chosen based on research questions and
around key method(s) convenience. The study was carried out for nearly two and
half years.
3 Focus: Focus area of An academic program within the educational institute was
investigation, refine focused due to time and resource limitations of the
research method institute as well as that of the participant observer(s).
Comparison of certain metrics before and after LT

implementation was studied.
4 Develop: Repeat Due to multiple terms within a year, repetition of
method, develop theory processes being studied was possible. It supported in
replicating the study to confirm the outcomes and hence
develop a concrete LT implementation model for
educational institutes.
5 Apply: Express theory The proposed framework for implementing LT was
as applicable technique developed and demonstrated for an educational institute.
This framework can be used for future applications in
other institutes.
6 Evaluate approach Data were gathered both through participant observation
during the study period and from the administration of the
institute post the study period to evaluate the benefits,
attained through LT implementation.
7 Disseminate results Learnings from this experience can be generalized for
applying LT in other processes or other educational
institutes.
8
Table 5: SIPOC for the case organization studied

Core Supplier Input Process Output Customer
• Undergraduate • Students • Admission • Successful graduates • Industries
Colleges • Qualified faculty • Registration placed in an industry • Educational
• Postgraduate members • Inauguration • Successful graduates not institutes
Colleges • Education • Orientation placed in an industry • Government
• Experienced content • Learning: 6 • Students who failed to • Non-
Employees from • Library terms graduate by not satisfying governmental
Industries • Invited expert • Summer the minimum program organizations
• Faculty members talks Placements qualification criteria
from other institutes • Infrastructure • Internship • Competitions participated
for upgrading their • Foreign and won
subject knowledge Exchange • Live projects completed
• Final for industries
Other Non-Core Suppliers • Research papers authored
Placements
• Graduation with faculty members
• Organizers of
Entrance • Alumni, etc.
examination
• Education content
providers
• Financing
institutions such as
Banks
• Parents
• Government
9
Table 6: Details of Rough Cut VSM of Single Term

S. No. Process Prerequisite Process Lead Time Process Time No. of people involved
Nearly a month before the beginning of
the term, schedule for the first month of
Outputs of bidding
process (for last three the given term is shared with students Schedules are subjected to
Scheduli terms) and availability through an online link. Schedule for changes which force the Minimum is 2. But
1 extension of process time on dynamically varies based
ng of faculty members, subsequent months within a term is
scheduling through multiple on the task demand.
timings, and venue for shared with students at least before a reworks.
the course are decided. week of the beginning of the next
month.
List of textbooks, case
Procurem packs, reading materials, Books are purchased by
Procured (nearly 1 month) and Minimum is 2. But
ent & simulation software, etc. placing orders to publishing
2 distributed (1 day) before the first day of dynamically varies based
Distributi
to be purchased. or distribution houses by
every term. on the task demand.
on Decided by the faculty PGP office.
members of the course.
Scheduling, Average of 24 instructors
Sessions of one hour fifteen minutes and Each credit has a process
3 Teaching Procurement, and with support from PGP
in average five sessions per day. time of ten hours
Distribution office employees.
Last teaching
session/after completion Hardcopy of feedback forms are
Involve data entry, analysis, Minimum is 6 as six
of the course to evaluate administered and resulting feedback
and summary sections of teaching happen
the content of the metric is used as an assessment
4 Feedback documentation. It requires on simultaneously. But
course, pedagogy component for evaluating the capability
an average about 120 dynamically varies based
adopted by faculty of faculty members. Varies from 15 to on the task demand.
minutes.
members, and their 45 days.
skills.
Assessm Distributed over the Decision on assessment components is Total evaluation time is Quizzes, midterm, and end
5
ent entire term to ensure made by the faculty member of the highly dependent on the term are scheduled by
10
S. No. Process Prerequisite Process Lead Time Process Time No. of people involved
continuous learning of course. Total time can be considered to assessment components program office employees
students. be 1 term (3 months) as the assessment employed by the faculty whereas project
components such as quizzes, project member and varies widely presentation and
presentations, mid-term, and end-term within the subjects. discussions are scheduled
are distributed over the term. by the concerned instructor
themselves.
Usually, grading is
performed before the
Individual faculty member
Relative grading is adopted by faculty midterm of next term and
teaching the course
members and is mostly completed within two weeks after end
Scores in different perform grading & submit
within a month after end term. Program term of term 6. With the
assessment components the individual component
6 Grading office ensures that students are availability of scores, entire
and corresponding marks/grades of all their
distributed across all the grades by grading process takes less
weights/points allotted. students to the program
fitting the final scores into a pre- than two days. In the case of
office, which will be
determined template. discrepancies, the program
released to students.
office asks the instructors to
rework their grading.
11
Table 7: Different wastes identified in sub-processes of single term process flow chart
Wastes *
S. No. Process Problems Identified
1 2 3 4 5 6
1) The schedule was released only on a monthly basis and was released before a week for next

month to start.
2) Multiple reworks over scheduling.
3) No or low involvement of faculty members in the process leading to multiple rescheduling.
4) Separate emails sent to students by the program office alerting the change in schedule and

informing the schedule of quizzes, midterm, and end term examinations.
1 Scheduling
5) Choice of venue for classes did not consider the movement of students from one session to

another.
6) Most of the quiz slots in between morning and afternoon sessions remain unutilized by the

program office.
7) The schedule was found to be distributed non-uniformly i.e. it was varying from six to two

sessions per day.
1) Printing of registration form from the program office portal at the start of every term before
Procurement receiving the materials distributed.
2 & 2) Sometimes case books and materials were distributed after the start of the term.
Distribution
3) Availability of books and materials are notified individually through emails.
1) Delay of nearly 75 minutes between morning and afternoon sessions due to quiz slots.
2) Manual attendance is taken for every session in an attendance sheet by a faculty member or

teaching assistant.
3) Details from the attendance sheet are transferred to a template that captures the list of
Teaching
3 absentees by teaching assistant. Details of absentees are then transferred again to the online portal
Sessions
of attendance by the Program office.
4) Deviation in the course curriculum.
5) High absenteeism of students during the classes that were scheduled on the days of quizzes.
6) Overlapping of course contents of different but related courses.
1) Use of hardcopy feedback forms.
4 Feedback
2) Manual distribution and collection of feedback form during the final session of the course by
12
the program office. This also led to missing of feedback (equivalent to defects) if a student was
absent in the last session.
3) Data loading of manual feedback for data analysis to evaluate the feedback metrics which

brings in more chances of manual error.
1) Hardcopy quiz papers (mostly multiple choice questions and one-word answers), manual

correction and manual data loading of the scores for grading.
2) Descriptive exams (usually mid term and end term) conducted using hardcopy question papers

5 Assessment and answer sheets.
3) Rework in evaluation process because of human errors.
4) Different assessment pattern, assessment components and marks allocation for the same course

by different faculty members.
1) Correction of mistakes (if any) in individual assessment components was not possible
immediately, as the grades for these components are released only at the end of the term after
completing all assessment components.
2) Due to errors in few assessment components, reworking demands correction of the entire

6 Grading grading process.
3) Students inability to view individual component grades regularly thereby not enabling them to

understand current grade status and expected final grade.
4) Evaluation and grading sheets are mailed by faculty members to the program office to upload

the same in the online portal.
* 1 – Reworks; 2 – Motion; 3 – Waiting; 4 – Over processing; 5 – Overproduction; 6 – Defects;
13
Table 8: Details of the solutions proposed for problems and wastes identified
S. No. Process Solutions Proposed Lean Tools and Practices Adopted
1. Involvement of faculty members in the process of scheduling 1. Cycle time and lead time reduction
2. Automatic notification to the program office and students 2. Information sharing
3. Online timetable with different color codes 3. Use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
1 Scheduling
4. Classroom allotment to ensure minimum movement and gap 4. Stakeholder involvement in design
between sessions 5. Workload smoothing (Heijunka)
5. Distribute classes uniformly throughout the term 6. Visual control
1. Process simplification
1. Adopt materials from Indian publishing houses wherever
Procurement 2. Pokayoke
possible
2 and 3. Information sharing
2. Biometric system as sole authorization for several processes
Distribution 4. Cycle time and lead time reduction
3. Online portal notification for availability of course materials
5. Process standardization
1. Heijunka (helped in removing unused quiz slots in
weekdays)
Teaching 1. Online attendance portal
2. Information sharing
3 2. Single day scheduling of quizzes
Sessions 3. Communication between faculty members, students
3. Online portal for sharing course outlines
and program office
4. Stakeholder involvement
1. Cycle time and lead time reduction
4 Feedback 1. Online feedback portal ensuring 100% feedback system
2. Use of EDI
1. Cycle time, setup time and lead time reduction
1. Online examination portals 2. Information sharing
5 Assessment 2. Online display of grades of components as and when evaluated 3. Heijunka
3. Standardization of assessment components and weights 4. Process standardization
5. Pokayoke
1. Avoid reworking by displaying assessment component grades
in online portal as and when evaluated 1. Identifying problem at source
6 Grading
2. Direct accessibility to online portals for faculty members to 2. Information sharing
enter the evaluations and final grades
14
Table 9: Difference in number of sessions absent by students across the terms
Term 2 - Term 1 Term 3 - Term 2 Term 3 - Term 1
Batch 1 646 563 1209
Batch 2 748 270 1018
Decrease in absenteeism
-102 293 191
(Batch 1 – Batch 2)
Table 10: Comparison of number of unfilled seats for electives offered in each term across
two batches
No. of electives Batch 1 Batch 2 Difference Difference
floated (Batch 1 – Batch 2) per elective

Term 4 19 216 156 60 3
Term 5 16 418 84 334 21
Term 6 15 126 79 47 3
Total 50 760 319 441 9
Table 11: Comparison of missed feedback responses in each term across two batches
Batch 1 Batch 2 Missed responses
(Total - Responded)
Term Responded Total Responded Total Batch 1 Batch 2
1 2384 3389 2092 2944 1005 852
2 2345 2914 2102 2945 569 843
3 1885 2887 2232 3054 1002 822
15
Table 12: Performance measures to evaluate the impact of LT implementation
S. No. Process Process Metric
Absenteeism per course per term
Maximum number classes scheduled per day
1 Scheduling
Standard deviation of number of sessions in a day per term
Average number of absenteeism for classes on quiz days
Procurement Cost of materials purchased to total program cost per term
2 &
Number of days before which course materials are distributed
Distribution
Percentage of cost incurred to total cost per term
3 Feedback
Average number of absenteeism in feedback collection per course
Average time in evaluating the quizzes (in minutes)
4 Assessment Average task repetitions in assessment due to manual errors per
evaluation per course (before and after standardization)
5 Grading Average number of overall grade changes per course in a term

Average number of reworks (per term), Average number of defects
Common to (per term), Average number of emails transacted, Average waiting
all five time, Average student movement (in meter), Average process lead
6
process time (in minutes), Average process time (value added) (in minutes),
listed and Non-value added time (in minutes) (refer to appendix II for a
template of these common performance metrics).
16

APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Educational institutes implemented LT.
Institute name Solution proposed (lean practices) Performance Measures

The University Implemented lean practices by following a four-step model. Number of pieces of paper generated, annual paper cost,
of Central A manager was appointed in the office of process average number of touches, average age of work order waiting
Oklahoma improvements to oversee the lean initiatives, track the old at assignment and percentage of work order submitted by
initiatives, and constantly identify new opportunities for email.
improvement.
The University Implemented lean six sigma practices on close to 25 projects Award setup project (reduced the average award set up time
of Wisconsin – from 113 days to 20 days), collaborative research approval
Madison (reduced the time to get approvals from 4 days to 1 day),
developing grant sub-agreements (reduced process steps from
12 steps to 6 steps and reduced the average process time from
378 days to 56 days), and corrective non-salary cost transfer
(reduced process time from 29 days to 5 days)
University of Implemented lean principles by using a team approach Conference organization and planning, print publications,
Virginia involving process owners in the creative process, front line facilities management, procurement analysis, records
employees in problem-solving, and by employing a variety management, faculty exit procedures, academic certification
of improvement and organizational change tools. tracking etc.
University of Implemented lean in UM health care system 80% reduction in wait time and 23% reduction in the overall
Michigan (UM) process time in the clinical billing unit, 4 hour reduction in the
average processing time for MRI orders to scan, 50%
reduction in process time in accounts payable approvals, and a
1
90% reduction in payment process time in the human subject

incentive program.
Miami Implemented LT using the LEAN (Leveraging Efficiencies University was able to save almost $16,000 per year in one of
University and Aligning Needs) initiative their projects in housing and dining and a solution
implemented to change the types of disposable products used
in food service was projected to save $123,000 per year.
St. Andrews Attempted to become a lean university by identifying three Closer working relationship between estates and finance was
University major goals, namely, culture change (to create a drive for achieved. Financial transactions were completed quickly with
continuous improvement), effectiveness (to ensure all high customer satisfaction. Staff time and effort were saved.
business process meet existing and emerging needs), and The lean team at this university identified 8 wastes which
finally efficiency (to maximize the use of all resources to were traditional seven lean wastes plus ‘skills misuse’ as the
deliver maximum services). eighth waste.
University of Implemented lean in its finance and facilities department and Study the improvement tasks in Finance & Facilities (F2) by
Washington has successfully completed several projects. The tools using operational-dashboard measures, balanced scorecard
implemented in various projects include supplier registration methodology, quality and process improvement fundamentals,
and procurement services, university audits, facilities and recognition and teamwork. With an F2 dashboard,
services 5S, records management, furniture procurement, department tracks the key performance measures of all the
campus alterations, etc. operations connected with the F2 department. This tracking
helps in monitoring F2 strategies and its impact on operations
and assists in meeting customer needs.
Source: Adapted from Kallam (2013).

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International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management

Applying lean thinking in an educational institute – an action research

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

Design/methodology/approach: Various LT tools and techniques applicable in educational

Research limitations/implications: Current study describes only the initial stages of

Article Classification: Research paper

1.1. Challenges for Indian Management Education

Rest of the paper is structured as shown in Figure 2.

“Insert figure 2 here”

2.1. Existing frameworks for LT implementation in educational institute

2.2. Educational institutes implementing LT

“Insert table 1 here”

2.3. LT for Education/Teaching Process

“Insert table 2 here”

2.4. Research Questions

RQ 1: How should an educational institute implement LT? Can a framework (structured

To answer these RQs, the experience of implementing process improvement in an

3. Action Research Methodology (ARM)

assessing involvement and collaboration of employees on new initiatives. It is a known fact

3.1. Overview of the educational institute

3.2. Utilizing ARM in the educational institute

“Insert table 3 here”

“Insert table 4 here”

Step 1 – Understanding various processes and stakeholders in an educational institute

“Insert table 5 here”

“Insert figure 3 here”

“Insert figure 4 here”

Step 2 – Value Stream Mapping (VSM) of a specific process

“Insert figure 5 here”

“Insert table 6 here”

Step 3 - Identify different types of wastes

“Insert table 7 here”

Step 4 - Identify lean solutions to eliminate the wastes

“Insert table 8 here”

solutions listed in Table 8 are detailed below:

“Insert table 9 here”

“Insert table 10 here”

“Insert table 11 here”

“Insert table 12 here”

5. Framework for LT implementation in educational institutes

“Insert figure 6 here”

Step 2 - Construct the process flow diagram of a specific process to be studied

Step 5 - Compare the change in performance measures & pursue continuous

5.1. Coherence of the framework with five tenets of lean

“Insert figure 7 here”

6.1. Research Implications & Limitations

Limitation of the proposed framework is its generalizability as the framework is developed

Anand Gurumurthy is an Associate Professor in the area of “Quantitative Methods and

Raju Chockalingam is a Professor in the area of “Quantitative Methods and Operations

APPLYING LEAN THINKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE

Number of institutions University/Colleges % increase with 2000-01 as the base year

Figure 1: Growing number of educational institutions (university/colleges) in India 1

Figure 2: Structure of the paper

Interview and Admission,

Figure 3: Process Flow Diagram of the entire educational institute

TERM 1 TERM 2 TERM 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6

Intra-College Student Body Summer Inter-college Intra-College Final

Figure 4: Detailed process flow chart of the flagship program