Title: Lean concept implementation in a consulting company

Authors: Nenad Balazin; Nedeljko Stefanic

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Zagreb, Ivana Pergosica 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lucica 5, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract: Many examples demonstrated that lean principles can be applied in service sector just as effectively as in manufacturing, but there is not much experience about the lean transformation of consulting company processes. The intent of this paper is to demonstrate the lean principle implementation into a process of environmental impact study (EIS) development. Following the lean principle by using lean tools and methodologies certain process improvement have been achieved. This paper proves that lean can be successful improvement approach for the complex service processes such as the EIS document preparation.

Keywords: service management; lean concepts; consulting firms; complex service processes; process improvement; environmental impact study; EIS development; traditional management; lean management; services; lean principles; environmental impact assessment; EIA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2013.054443

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2013 Vol.15 No.3, pp.275 - 292

Published online: 28 Apr 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article