Title: Lessons from higher education: adapting Lean Six Sigma to account for structural differences in application domains

Authors: Vincent Wiegel; L. Brouwer-Hadzialic

Addresses: Faculty of Technology, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Lean and World Class Performance Research Group, P.O. Box 2217, 6802 CE Arnhem, The Netherlands ' Faculty of Technology, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Lean and World Class Performance Research Group, P.O. Box 2217, 6802 CE Arnhem, The Netherlands

Abstract: Lean Six Sigma is applied in a wide range of economic domains ranging from industry to services to healthcare. These are all domains that have markedly different structures. Recently a set of papers has appeared indicating that the successes in applying Lean Six Sigma to new domains such as government, healthcare and education are falling short of expectations. We discovered by exploring the case for Lean Six Sigma in higher education a set of structural variables that explain differences in application domains. These differences are relevant to the application of Lean Six Sigma in general. These differences and the extent in which Lean Six Sigma can cater for them explain some part of the successes and failures in the application of Lean Six Sigma outside its domain of origin: high volume, repetitive production.

Keywords: lean six sigma; higher education; application domains; government services; six sigma success; six sigma failure; healthcare services; structural differences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2015.070104

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2015 Vol.9 No.1, pp.72 - 85

Received: 28 Oct 2014
Accepted: 28 Apr 2015
Published online: 26 Jun 2015 *

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