Lean thinking, from car industry to higher education institutions' classrooms

Abstract

In Japan, immediately after the Second World War, Toyota Company developed a new Production System called TPS in order to solve the low productivity experienced by the Japanese car industry. The objective of this new system was to increase production efficiency and reduce wastes. The researchers Womack and Jones, after studying the Japanese success, decided to present an updated version of TPS called Lean Thinking, including new concepts. In 1996, James Womack and Daniel Jones decided to publish a book called “Lean Thinking” and from then on, this philosophy has been used to refer to a new kind of management whose objective is to create value reducing waste at the same time. From car manufacturing companies to construction companies, municipalities, the health sector and even the airspace industry, the literature offers so many examples of lean thinking for the management of administration in different sectors. As far as higher education is concerned, lean thinking can be a powerful management improvement methodology to increase the efficiency and sustainability of higher education institutions. But what about translating lean thinking into an efficient teaching methodology? The main contributions of this research are the following three: (1) an analysis of the lean thinking characteristics, its benefits and contributions; (2) a comparative study between the use of lean in different sectors including its use in an academic management environment; (3) a set of recommendations and guidelines to apply lean thinking as a teaching methodology. To this end, this paper will share a comprehensive list of lean applications at the university level categorizing each elements of the process according to the genuine lean characteristics already set in the state of the art. Furthermore, an adaptation of the characteristics from the administrative management sphere will be provided in order to be transferred to the academic management level. The results of this study demonstrate that lean thinking philosophy still have plenty of spectrum to go and also show the current relevance of concepts that can be transferable from one environment to another. Efficiency procedures deriving from car industry and related to concepts such as economic efficiency or stock management, can lead to efficient teaching methodologies through the use of lean principles, specially through the identification of valuable procedures in the classrooms and the reduction of academic “waste”. In conclusion, this paper explains how lean thinking can be extended to obtain a new competence learning gain.