APPLICATIONS OF LEAN MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

In today’s world, there is a great competition in all sectors. All organizations need new customers and all customers need new products and new services. Only lean and flexible organizations can respond to these needs. Lean thinking not only changes the way of manufacturing, but also can be the way to improve any kind of organizations as service and construction. Educational organizations are also organizations that use lean management principles to improve the organizational and management processes. The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of applications of lean management in educational organizations. Data were collected through Lean Management Inventory (LMI) which was developed by the researchers. The population of the study was comprised of 310 teachers working at primary schools in Sakarya, Turkey. Data were analyzed by using several statistical techniques such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way Anova. Findings were presented systematically and suggestions were made according to the result of the study.