Introducing Lean
"I want other places to look at St Andrews and wonder why they can't be more like us" - Human Resources
Goals
Lean in the University of St Andrews has three main goals:
- Culture Change - to create a drive and appetite for continuous improvement.
- Effectiveness - to ensure that all business processes meet existing and emerging needs.
- Efficiency - to maximise the use of all resources in the delivery of services.
A bit of Lean Theory
"It's changed my mentality; that things can change here for the better" - Residential & Business Services
Lean Thinking began with the Toyota Production System, which transformed car manufacturing in post-war Japan. Lean is now being used in the public and private sectors around the world to improve:
- Customer service
- Quality
- Efficiency
- Staff morale
- Internal communication and cooperation
Lean in Higher Education works by applying the same principles as those of Lean's origins. Often these principles are demonstrated differently in HE, notably by using different language.
Two Key Concepts
Lean is a philosophy of work, an approach that has grown from the application of two key concepts:
- Continuous improvement
- Continuously looking at your work processes and striving to improve them (by, for example, using the Plan-Do-Check-Act improvement cycle).
- Respect for people
- Remembering that our staff are our greatest asset. It is, after all, the staff of an organisation who know what works well and what needs to be improved, and who have the ability to suggest and make the necessary improvements.
Five Principles
James Womack & Dan Jones in their books 'The Machine that Changed the World' and 'Lean Thinking' identified five principles that have come to define Lean:
| Five Principles of Lean | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pull | Do what's needed |
| 2 | The Value Stream | Think of the process |
| 3 | Flow | Make it flow |
| 4 | Value | Add value & remove waste |
| 5 | Perfection | Aim for perfection |
Eight Wastes
The act of identifying and eliminating waste from processes is a large part in Lean activity; often 8 definitions of waste are used. As an acronym these spell out the name Tim Woods.
| Eight Wastes | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transportation | Unnecessary movement of materials, people, information, equipment or paper. |
| 2 | Inventory | Excess stock: unnecessary files and copies, and extra supplies. |
| 3 | Motion | Unnecessary walking and searching; things not within reach or accessible. |
| 4 | Waiting | Idle time that causes the workflow to stop, such as waiting for signatures, machines, phone calls. |
| 5 | Overprocessing | Processing things that don't add value to the customer, e.g. asking for student details multiple times, excessive checking or duplication of work. |
| 6 | Overproduction | Producing either too much paperwork / information, or producing it before it is required. This consumes resources faster than necessary. |
| 7 | Defects | Work that needs to be redone due to errors (whether human or technical) or because incorrect or incomplete information was provided. |
| 8 | Skills Misuse | Not using the full potential of staff; wasting the available knowledge, skills and experience. |
For Lean to provide the most benefit to an organisation, it must become part of the 'philosophy' of that organisation. The best Lean organisations are always thinking about how they can improve what they do.
Lean in St Andrews
Lean is central to our University's approach to organisational effectiveness and efficiency and is ultimately about our organisational culture. Using a Lean approach is integrated in our institutional Strategic Planning. We work closely with our Head of Organisational Development, Cat Wilson.
The University of St Andrews is steadily growing its reputation, yet we are always looking to improve. Since 1773 the greek motto of the University has been AIEN ARISTEUEIN, translated as "Ever to be the Best". Constantly aiming at improvement is central to the University's identity.
Lean provides a way of changing how we work, focusing on the processes we use to ensure they are waste free and as effective as possible in order to deliver a high quality service.
High quality administration is vital for every area of the University. As in many organisations, administrative functions here have grown organically, which leads to some services suffering a lack of coordination and clarity of purpose.
We have a lot of skilled and motivated people who want to provide great service. It is important to ensure that our staff members are able to direct their time and energy without being held back or limited by processes that could be improved.
Why Lean?
Without changing the way work is done, even without considering the additional pressures of the current financial climate, the University will be unable to maintain its success. Furthermore, our competition is always raising the bar.
The University is not alone in using Lean or other similar process improvement approaches. Many UK Universities are now implementing large-scale change programmes aimed at reviewing their processes and developing a culture of continuous improvement.
"I have always found working with the LEAN team enjoyable, stimulating and above all beneficial. LEAN opens eyes to new ways of thinking or working, and challenges norms in a positive way, which adds value not only to process but to team cohesion." - Student Services
"Lean has made a difference to how we work, things are better now." - Registry
"We've acheived more in the past day and a half than in the five years I've been here!" - BI
"Lean is making a difference" - BI
"It has been a lot of hard work but I feel very satisfied with the outcome. I enjoyed working with everyone." - Residential and Business Services
"It really started to make me think about how I am going about my working life, doing various jobs/tasks and how I could do them better!" - Geography and Geosciences
"Lean is great fun - we're getting things done." - Registry
