Contenido

Abstract.............................................................................................................. 1
Introduction......................................................................................................... 2
Literature review................................................................................................. 3
Lean manufacturing: history............................................................................ 4
Six Sigma: history............................................................................................ 5
Discussion........................................................................................................... 7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 8
References.......................................................................................................... 9

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze if Lean Six Sigma may be a tool for
improving higher education institutions and, if so, how it has to be implemented
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and the problems it may be presented, as well as favorable aspects in which this
methodology can be introduced. It will also explain why the tools and techniques of
Lean are so important. The paper discusses if Lean may be a useful optimizer of
operational and strategic decisions for this industry. Secondary data was used to
get informed and have a justify of the benefits and importance of implementing
Lean in this sector. Here, it will be presented the barriers and issues about the
adaption of Lean in the education sector. The information presented here is totally
theoretical. Posterior to that, it will present some studies of this topic and to create
a possible way to implement Lean in higher education institutes. This paper will try
to demonstrate that Lean may not be only for the manufacturing industry. Also, it
will show that there is no difference between its implementation in the public or
private institutions. Despite of Leans poor acceptance in institutions, those who
had adopted it as its own has made an astonishing improvement in its operations
and client satisfaction (students).

Introduction
We have seen the effectiveness of Lean Six Sigma in organizations, such as
Volkswagen and many other manufacturing companies, but specially for aviation
and car. Also, we can see how good it is for the medicine tool manufacturing,
motorcycling, computers, mobiles. All of them have a strong need for their products

to be extremely reliable and cero defects. For example, a bad manufactured

airplane may cost life losses, as well as a car or a motorcycle. Even medical
products, as a Littman, may cause a bad diagnosis.
But not all has to be that delicate. Laptops has to be very well made so they can
overpass daily bad use struggles as crashes, high temperatures, humidity or even
contaminated air or dust. Mobile devices, such as cellphones and tablets, may as
well be prepared for those kind of situations, but these products are even tinier, so
their manufacturing is much more complicated. In fact, some of those are as
powerful as a normal laptop, so manufacturers have to maintain the size while
working at high levels.
But, as you can see, all of them are related to a single word: manufacturing. This is
because heres the place where it was born, these kind of places were those where
Lean and Six Sigma, and Lean Six Sigma, were created fororiginally.
Some organizations away from the manufacturing (services, or course) are trying
to implement these methodologies and its philosophy. It is a big challenge because
you dont have a physical product some of the times, and you may need it to watch
the defects or reoperations that there could be. At least this could have been the
first thoughts of those who first tried to implement it for the service industry. With
time, they could be able to realize that the process itself was the most important,
as they werent able to analyze a product.
This is what maybe happened in the education sector. How are you able to
measure how effectively you are working with students? Grades? Client
satisfaction? We will look for the answers while we get through the paper.

Literature review
Lean is a methodology that tries to minimize as most as possible the waste of all
forms, from defects to waiting time; all those activities that does not add value to
the product or process. Six Sigma is a methodology that aims for the reduce of
variation in a process and, eventually, create a robust business, that means, that is
completely stable. But Lean and Six Sigma got together until 2000-2010.

Depending on where you are, Lean and Six Sigma is implemented. For example, in
Europe the start with Lean and then solve more complex stuff but in the US they
start stabilizing processes by Six Sigma and then make them Lean.
Lean seeks, above all, eliminate waste and restructure processes to make them
more efficient, fast and agile in responding to customer needs. The total elapsed
time ("lead time") is the primary metric on working. The tools are more visual and
execution is usually more explosively structure (Kaizen Events).
Six Sigma also aims to improve processes but in a broader and less defined
sense: quality, efficiency, service levels. Methodologically it is neater, and makes
extensive use of the data to understand the behavior of processes and identify
improvements.
Lean Six Sigma combines the methodological structure and data analysis tools of
Six Sigma tools and principles of Lean process. The traditional roles of Green Belt
and Black Belt World Six Sigma and Lean Specialist combine in one continuous
improvement leader, engaging projects and teams the most appropriate tools in
each case.
Lean Manufacturing is " a philosophy / management system about how to operate
a business." Focusing this philosophy / system tools in eliminating all waste,
thereby reducing the time between customer order and shipment of the product,
improving quality and reducing costs.
The fundamental principles of Lean Manufacturing
1. Perfect quality to the first: the search for zero defects, detection and
resolution of problems at source.
2. Waste minimization: elimination of all activities that are not value-added
and / or optimizing the use of scarce resources (capital, people and space).
3. Continuous Improvement: reduced costs, improved quality, increased
productivity and share information
4. Processes " Pull": the products are drawn (in the sense requested) by the
end customer, not pushed by the end of production.
5. Flexibility: Quickly produce different mixtures variety of products without
sacrificing efficiency due to lower production volumes.
6. Construction and maintenance of a long-term relationship with suppliers
taking agreements to share the risk, costs and information.
Six Sigma is a revolutionary management approach that measures and improves
the quality, has become a reference method for the same time, meet the needs of
customers and achieve perfectly with next levels. But what exactly is Six Sigma?
He said in a nutshell, is a method, based on data, to bring the quality up close to
perfection levels, different from other approaches because it also corrects

problems before they arise. More specifically it is a disciplined effort to examine

repetitive business processes.
Literally, any company can benefit from Six Sigma process. Design,
communication, training, production, management, losses, etc. Everything comes
within the field of Six Sigma. But the road is not easy. The possibilities for
improvement and cost savings are enormous, but the Six Sigma process requires
commitment of time, talent, dedication, persistence and, of course, economic
investment.

Lean manufacturing: history

The history of lean manufacturing as it is also called begins with Sakichi Toyoda
Japanese visionary who very young began to revolutionize the industry, their first
contributions were the textile industry when began manufacturing looms that other
knitting fabric stopped to time to break one of the wires, this was one of the pillars
of the Toyota production system, the Jidoka or total quality in products. Then with
his son Kiichiro founded the Toyota Motor Company and this contributed to the
philosophy of his father and techniques Just in Time (JIT) and kanban allowing the
flow and continuous supply long production.
But what the Lean Manufaturing, also known as the Toyota production system: is to
do more with less time, less space, less human effort, less equipment, less
material, as long as he is giving the customer what they want. Are precisely the
customers who usually have companies under pressure to reduce costs and
delivery times, and to have the best quality and even more so in recent times
where the market is so competitive, organizations have only one way to profit:
eliminate waste from their processes and thereby reduce costs, this is one of the
fundamental objectives of this philosophy, delete everything according to the client
does not add value to the product.
To understand this better, we will analyze the "house of Toyota production system"
See Fig. Scheme has been used not only to display some of the tools for
implementation, also background or philosophy that is enclosed behind her. It is
symbolized by a house because this is a structural system is strong only if the
bases, columns and roof are strong, weak beam weaken the entire system. It starts
with the goals, the roof of the house, as we discussed would be the best quality,
lowest cost, shortest delivery time, greater security and more high morale. This two
columns holding the JIT such time the most recognized tool of the Toyota system,
which means producing the article listed in the required time and in the right
amount; and Jidoka which in essence is to give machines and operators the ability
to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and immediately stop the
process, it can detect the causes of problems and eliminate root and defects do not
pass stations following. The base of the house would be standardization, stability

and reliability in the processes and heijunka or leveling of production level and
variety.7
This methodology has been applied in many organizations worldwide, some
successful and others not because their application goes to there to follow
instructions or recipes and wait for results, this methodology has everything a
philosophical and cultural background and should start with the change of mentality
and attitude towards the organizational processes. It cannot be applied lightly or
fashion should be something designed and adapted to the organization, and must
be a real commitment to change and be willing to make the changes necessary to
achieve it. On the other hand, the results of this transformation may not be
immediate, so many organizations have given up on the target and say that the
methodology does not work. Lean Manufacturing is a philosophy of gradual
application which should make a structural and cultural change in the organization,
starting from the basics and continuously improving (Kaizen) to the desired results.

Six Sigma: history

Six Sigma is a philosophy that began in the eighties as market strategy and quality
improvement in the company Motorola, when the engineer Mikel Harry, promoted
as estimable goal in the organization; evaluation and analysis of process variation
Motorola, as a way to fit closer to reality. It is at this time, with the rise of
globalization companies in the industrial and commercial sector, which began to
develop more efficient techniques that will allow optimize processes to improve
their competitiveness and productivity, which involved principally to reduce
variability factors or critical variables that alter one way or another normal process
performance. As statistical measure taken as reliable evaluation of the standard
deviation of the process, represented by the symbol as an indicator of performance
and in turn to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. This
initiative became the focal point of the effort to improve the quality of Motorola,
calling attention to CEO Bob Galvin; with their support, emphasis was not only on
the analysis of the variation but also on continuous improvement, noted that when
the statistical control to a process is performed is taken as natural variability when
sigma value ranges to three deviations from the mean. Criterion amending the Six
Sigma method which requires that the process is four point five deviations from the
mean. This implies that a significant process information must be within this range,
which statistically means that it is considered normal 34 elements of the process
do not meet the quality criteria required by the customer, for every million
opportunities (1,000,000). This is the cause of philosophical origin Six Sigma
Method as a measure of performance of an organization. It was thus with the
passage of time has emerged this new philosophy of quality and development of
quality standards that many companies currently apply.
This new improvement initiative motivated Lawrence Bossidy, who in 1991 after his
retirement from General Electric, takes the direction of the conglomerate Allied
Signal to transform a company in financial difficulties, a successful organization.
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During the nineties, Allied Signal expanded its sales amazingly. This quality model
was imitated by Texas Instruments, achieving similar success. During 1995, the
CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, learns the success of this new strategy to
improve thanks to the information provided by Lawrence Bossidy, thus facilitating
the greatest transformation in this organization. This novel way of guiding the
quality policies established in the organization, takes hold of the criteria laid down
in ISO quality standards and complemented by a greater commitment to advanced
techniques of statistical quality control, indicating that the Six Sigma is a quality
methodology that departs from the criteria of improvement currently being
developed, however the integration of these continuous improvement methods
induces greater efficiency and effectiveness within the organization.

Discussion
The main issues we may find in the implementation of Lean Six Sigma in higher
education institutions are several:
1. There is a natural issue between some terminologies used in the
manufacturing and in the service sectors.

2. Many executives are not aware of the benefits of implementing these

methodologies.
3. It is necessary that the executives compromise with the idea of continuous
improvement and the methodologies.
4. Think all as a process, to be able to implement the methodologies.
5. Perhaps the cultural part of the implementation in the higher institute may be
a problematic.
6. The budget, depending of the school, may be a serious trouble, as well as
the employees time.
The natural incoherence of the terminologies comes from the creation itself of the
methodologies. That is because both were created from a manufacturing context,
as well as their original objectives.
The thing that the executives are not aware of the benefits of Lean Six Sigma
implementation is something unfavorable common. Unfavorable because is very
common, at least here in Mexico. And, as they are not aware of the benefits, it may
be a problem for their compromise with the implementation because they thing is
something immediate.
It is important that the personnel feel empowered, so they get confident and
support with new ideas.
The budget may be more problematic in public schools because of burocratic
procedures, but private schools dont have too large budgets.

Conclusion
In despite of Lean has existed for a long time (it has like 10 years), it has not
developed a lot for the higher education institutions. There are lots of organizations
(institutions and others) that believe Lean Six Sigma is not applicable for them but,
as we can see, this isnt true. As we have demonstrated, it can be applied and with
very satisfactory results. In here, you can see the problems that Lean appliance in
higher education institutions that may be presented, as well as how well it can work
when applied correctly. It is expected to be created a totally constructed manual for

the implementation of this methodology in any institution that wants to apply this
technique, for them to simplify their process of change, as well as the effectiveness
of it.

References

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https://www.abdn.ac.uk/staffnet/documents/0502-emiliani-lean-highereducation_(2).pdf
L. Comm, Clare; F. X. Mathaisel, Dennis. (2005). A case study in applying
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search.proquest.com.millenium.itesm.mx/docview/205024573/fulltextPDF/A
DA3C9968A584A2EPQ/14?accountid=41938
Antony, Jiju. (April 21 2013). Readiness factor for the Lean Six Sigma
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ADA3C9968A584A2EPQ/1?accountid=41938
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http://leansixsigmamexico.com/que-es-lean-six-sigma/1-que-el-lean-sixsigma
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http://www.leansolutions.co/conceptos/
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