RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IN RESEARCH & TEACHING: APPLYING LEAN PRINCIPLES IN ACADEMIA
RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IN RESEARCH & TEACHING: APPLYING LEAN PRINCIPLES IN ACADEMIA

Summary/Abstract: Lean Project Management (LPM), founded in Lean Thinking and influenced by the Toyota Production System, provides useful guidance for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of higher education institutions. This paper examines the theoretical foundation of LPM within higher education institutions, showing how lean principles such as identifying value, flow optimization, pull systems, and continuous improvement (Kaizen) can be adapted to the needs of teaching, research, and administration in education. One application of these principles is to simplify procedures and make them systematic and logical. Thus, universities can remove unnecessary work procedures from their processes and allocate resources in accordance with actual student, faculty, and research stakeholder needs. Despite this clear range of benefits, the adoption of LPM within higher education and its effects are held back variously by intransigent cultures of resistance, difficulty in measuring lean results within an academic setting, the balance between efficiency versus retaining scholarly freedom and creative spirit, and more. This paper proposes solutions to these problems by advocating for context specific models, creating suitable KPIs, and emphasizing the importance of providing full faculty/staff training sessions. Future development directions include combining Lean Optimizing with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. There is an urgent need to turn to empirical studies to look at the long term effects of LPM on research productivity and student academic results. At the same time, it should also address questions more fully about whether or not such lean management methods can actually improve school effectiveness. At the end of the day, Lean Project Management represents a promising approach to improving the running of institutions of higher learning.

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