Abstract:

Universities are complex systems, with interdependent processes, designed to serve a wide range of internal and external customers: students, teaching staff, administrative staff, the employers, the graduates and overall society. Currently, the higher-education institutions face similar challenges as profitable organizations, such as: rising costs, reduction of the funding, increased competition, growth of the expectations in terms of services and social responsibility. In this context, the concern for internal processes optimizing has turned into a strategic objective of university management, in order to ensure and improve the quality of education.

Lean problem management along with other improvement methods (TQM, 6 Sigma) is a practice commonly used in the industrial environment, in the context of quality and efficiency concerns. In the last decade, lean principles and techniques have been adapted to other systems in the service area: banking, administrative, health and education. The implementation of Lean principles in higher education may have the effect of improving the performance of basic processes and support, expressed through duration, waiting times, consumption of material resources, spaces, labor and costs.

The paper addresses the issue of improving the educational process carried out in universities, through systematic actions of improvement based on process innovation and lean methods. The approach can then be extended to other categories of university processes: administrative processes and scientific research.

Keywords:

Higher education, quality, the educational process, Lean methods.