ABSTRACT
The successful implementation of Lean Higher Education (LHE) provides the beneficiaries of university processes – students, faculty, parents, employers, alumni, legislators, and others – with higher quality, timelier, less costly, and more convenient processes. The clear focus on meeting or exceeding the expectations of beneficiaries is a central tenet of LHE, with improved processes leading to significantly better outcomes for these important constituencies. The university directly and indirectly benefits from the application of LHE. Frameworks for measuring the benefits of LHE activities recommend incorporating measures of the perceptions and attitudes of the beneficiaries and providers to assess effectiveness. Senior higher education leaders can decide to implement LHE university-wide but choose to implement their long-term plan in a slow and steady fashion. LHE initiatives typically focus on a single process, identifying its sources of waste and impediments to flow and using LHE concepts and methods to implement improvements.
