Adoption Of Lean Thinking Research Articles

Lean thinking in value co-creation:

Objective: The goal of this paper is to identify both the opportunities and barriers to adopting Lean Thinking for value co-creation in agro-industrial services. Design/methodology/approach: This research paper comprises a methodical review of the literature on value co-creation in agro-industrial services, with a specific focus on Lean Thinking. The authors utilized Bardin's (2011) content analysis approach to examine the resulting portfolio and derive insights into the prospects and challenges of implementing Lean Thinking in value co-creation within the agro-industrial services sector. Findings: The opportunities and barriers for the adoption of Lean Thinking in value co-creation in agro-industrial services were identified by the authors, who also proposed ways to overcome the obstacles. In total, five opportunities and five barriers were recognized. Originality: This study represents a novel effort in identifying the opportunities and barriers of implementing Lean Thinking in value co-creation for agro-industrial services. The findings may guide decision-making processes and strategic actions aimed at enhancing the agro-industrial market. Practical implications: The identified opportunities and barriers can provide a foundation for guiding strategies that direct agribusiness players in making informed decisions, while also mitigating waste through collaborative efforts among multiple companies. It can also guide players towards value aggregation in their products and/or processes by promoting co-created services among players, in line with the principles of Lean Thinking. Social implications: Efficient value co-creation in agro-industrial services can result in improved well-being, convenience, and service offerings for society. It can also add value to products through services and create more employment opportunities in the agro-industrial sector.

Applying lean management to reduce radiology turnaround times for emergency department.

Given the high impact of emergency department (ED) on the quality of care delivered by an hospital, and the many challenges it is facing (eg, overcrowding, excessive waiting time, cost containment, and increasing demand from patients), innovative managerial approaches should be adopted in order to develop safer and more efficient healthcare in this setting. The current study focuses on an application of lean thinking to reduce radiology turnaround times for ED, with the final aim to highlight the key factors enabling the adoption of lean thinking in this context. A research framework has been developed in the literature to analyse lean projects in healthcare and it has been adapted to study the case selected in an Italian hospital. In particular, organizational aspects, phases, and activities of the applied methodology, tools and procedures, and the achieved outcomes have been analysed. The study reports how radiology turnaround times for ED can be significantly reduced applying lean management principles and techniques. The achieved results contribute not only to comply with the regulation, but also to enhance the quality of care delivered to the patient; moreover, staff communication, involvement, and process awareness are favoured by the realization of similar projects promoting the diffusion of a lean culture.

Institutional pressures, isomorphic changes and key agents in the transfer of knowledge of Lean in Healthcare

PurposeApplication of operations management in healthcare is particularly promising to improve the overall organisational performance, although the Italian system is behind in introducing related techniques and methods. One of the recent experiments in healthcare is the implementation of “Lean Thinking”. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which exogenous forces are driving knowledge transfer on Lean, both in the private and public healthcare sectors.Design/methodology/approachInformed by institutional sociology (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Powell and DiMaggio, 1991), the paper builds on the case study methodology (Yin, 2013) to elucidate the environmental pressures that are encouraging the adoption of Lean thinking by Italian hospitals and Local Health Authorities.FindingsThe study highlights the economic, coercive, mimetic and normative pressures that are triggering the adoption of Lean thinking in the Italian National Health System (INHS). At the same time, the authors reveal the pivotal importance and innovative roles played by diverse prominent key-actors in the different organisations investigated.Originality/valueConsidering that little is known to date regarding which exogenous forces are driving the transfer of knowledge on Lean, especially in the public healthcare sector, the paper allows scholars to focus on patterns of isomorphic change and will facilitate managers and policy makers to understand exogenous factors stimulating the transfer of Lean thinking and the subsequent innovation within health organisations and systems.

Quantifying the benefits of the lean thinking adoption by the beer game supply chain

Benefits obtained by the adoption of lean thinking are often declared in the literature but not measured both at local and global level. In this work, the benefits quantification of an adoption of a lean thinking order policy is measured in the case of beer game supply chain modelled by Thomsen et al. (1992) considering the impact on bullwhip effect and inventory both on a supply chain level and on a single stage level. The paper shows that lean thinking provides major benefits to the whole supply chain in terms of bullwhip effect and carried inventory if more and more levels apply it. On the other hand, the paper highlights that these benefits not always hold locally, i.e., for some levels can be more profitable when no levels apply an order policy lean thinking-based.

Approaching the Adoption of Lean Thinking Principles in Food Operations in Hotels in Egypt

Lean thinking is a quality management approach that aims to eliminate waste and provide value for customers. It was originated and successfully applied in the manufacturing business and then transferred to the services industry. This study aimed to investigate the implementation of lean thinking in food and beverage operations in hotels in Egypt. A qualitative approach was adopted in this study using semistructured interview as a tool for gathering primary data. The sample of this study included 19 participants who were experienced in the field of quality and food and beverage operations. The results of the study revealed that the largest share of hotels in Egypt did not adopt lean thinking principles in their food and beverage operations. There were some obstacles that have limited the adoption of lean thinking in hotel food operations (e.g., lack of motivations for hotels; additional work effort and expenses associated with applying new approach). The results also showed that applying lean thinking principles in hotel food operations can achieve many operational benefits, such as reducing operating costs by eliminating wastes and achieving customer satisfaction through providing added value. The study has provided some practical implications, in a form of proposed model, that would enable a successful implementation of lean thinking in food and beverage operations in hotels.

Lean thinking in the highways construction sector: motivation, implementation and barriers

The interest in lean thinking in the UK’s civil construction industry is on the rise. The research presented in the paper evaluates the adoption of lean thinking in the highways construction sector by investigating 7 motivation factors, 20 lean techniques and 16 barriers through in-depth interviews with 20 sector managers and a questionnaire survey of 110 responses. The findings show the existence of strong external motivational factors for lean thinking such as clients’ push and companies’ expectation of winning more contracts alongside lean’s operational benefits. Limited adoptions of the lean techniques, mostly in the stepwise process improvement cycle, the Last Planner System and Visual Management, were determined. This raises concerns about ‘pseudo-lean’ practices in the sector. Lack of standardisation, insufficient benefit capturing, insufficient know-how, insufficient control of the entire value stream and limited view to the techniques were found as the top barriers.

The key enablers for the adoption of lean thinking by public purchasing departments

The complex and multifaceted nature of public procurement to some extent negate efficiency and effectiveness in serving the public purpose. The mandate to deliver different types of services to various segments of society and the need to do more with less resources place responsibility on public purchasing departments to be innovative. Lean thinking thereby offers viable opportunities for value creation through intentional strategies, techniques and tools to enhance process, product and outcomes. However, the decision to adopt lean thinking is contingent on multiple variables. This study attempts to identify key enablers for the adoption of the lean approach in the public sector. The study relies on data garnered from various public purchasing departments in North America. Multivariate analysis of the evidence suggests strategic, management, and individual level factors are essential for the adoption of the lean approach. The onus now rests on various professionals and relevant stakeholders associated with public procurement to initiate measures that will facilitate adoption of lean thinking as a conduit to responsive management and beneficial outcomes for society.

Value-Adding to Public Services Through the Adoption of Lean Thinking

This paper describes an investigation into alternative management models applied to public call centres operations with the aim of delivering significant added value to the overall public firm. Call centres offer significant potential for value creation. However, in practice they are often created as mechanistic organisations and managed in such a way is to inhibit value creation. An investigation in a UK city council was carried out through the means of a case study using both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data from directors, middle-managers and employees to evaluate the development of a lean thinking type of call centre. The results indicate that by implementing the lean thinking approach to the design of call centre service operations significant, but often counter-intuitive, benefits can be created. Lean thinking was found to yield improvements in service performance, value work productivity, and employees’ affective commitment. Evidence on lean value-added to the public call centres is very limited, this paper addresses this shortcoming.

Decision support system and the adoption of lean in a Swedish emergency ward

PurposeFacilitated by a decision support system tool, the purpose of this paper is to find the “best” allocated number of surgeons and medicine doctors that reduce patients' non‐value‐added time (NVAT) and total time in the system (TTS).Design/methodology/approachInterview and observation are first conducted in order to get general insights about (and to understand) the emergency ward of Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg (Sweden) and its value stream (flow). Then, time‐related data are collected by conducting time measurements empirically and through the triage database. The statistics of the collected empirical data represent the initial state of the system and are utilised as the input of ARENA® simulation. A simulation scenario is designed by constructing a 3×3 table (= nine combinations) that contains a varying number of surgeons and medicine doctors allocated in the emergency ward. For each combination, 1,000 replications apply (=10 runs @ 100 replications). “Runs” are the cycles or how many times the simulation is executed, while “replications” refer to how many times a computer (automatically) repeats the simulation in a single execution. The simulation length of a single replication was set at 24 hours due to the fact that an emergency ward was always open. The selected feasible solution is the “best” combination of surgeons and medicine doctors that reduces the existing NVAT and TTS while ensuring that the resource utilisation is at a “reasonable” level (and did not exceed 100 per cent).FindingsThe simulation output indicates that the emergency ward may achieve considerable reduction in a patients' NVAT and total patients' time in the system by assigning three medicine doctors and three surgeons. This combination leads to (in average) 13 per cent reduction of NVAT while maintaining the TTS at approximately the same level.Research limitations/implicationsAn expanded simulation model with a higher level of complexity and ability to accommodate, e.g. cost of care, flow/layout reconfiguration would be greatly needed and is of interest. It would also be relevant to add greater flexibility by assigning more parameters in the simulation model (other than medicine doctor and surgeon).Originality/valueSimulation can be considered as a valuable decision‐support tool in the adoption of lean in healthcare due to its flexibility in the sense that it is able to show the output (outcome) of various scenarios before any actual change is made. The results of our study present another side of the adoption of lean thinking besides layoff.

A framework for the adoption of lean thinking within public procurement

Public procurement is suffering from rule-driven processes, inefficient delivery systems and poor management of resources. Lean thinking, an approach centred on providing customers with exactly what they want, when they want it, may provide a means to address the problems associated with public procurement. A review of the extant literature, involving studies that span nearly every continent, provide strong support for these claims. The problems associated with public procurement, a distinction between lean production versus lean thinking, examples of how lean thinking has been successfully applied within the public sector, barriers to overcome, how to identify the procurement value stream, potential sources of waste, moving forward with rapid improvement events and how to achieve longer-term sustainable change are discussed. The purpose of this paper is two fold. First, to present in practical terms, how lean thinking can be applied so that some of the problems associated with public procurement can be overcome. Second, to provide an approach that could be used to address a number of questions suggested to guide future research.