The Business Case for Lean Six Sigma in Higher （精益六西格玛在更高的业务案例）.pdf

The Business Case for Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education by Norma Simons At the Time Summit on Higher Education in October 2012, Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, indicated that higher education is at a crossroads and identified a few key challenges facing the education system:  The high price of college tuition.  Low college completion rates.  Little accountability when it comes to improving attainment and achievement. When discussing the higher education system, there is a tendency to focus only on the quality of graduates and their ability to function in the workplace. While this is critical, we also need to look at education as a total collaborative system that requires involvement from all areas of the institution. In his book The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education, W. Edwards Deming stated that the education system can be improved by using the same principles that are used to improve processes and systems in other industries.1 To improve higher education, both academic and nonacademic processes must be identified, improved and aligned with performance and cost objectives. All processes must demonstrate their efficiency and effectiveness. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a method that helps organizations gain a competitive advantage by becoming faster, better and more cost effective. Lean helps identify and remove waste and improve the overall efficiency and speed in which a service is delivered. Six Sigma helps identify and prevent errors and ensure that processes are able to deliver outputs that meet customer requirements. Lean and Six Sigma are complementary and provide organizations with a set of tools for management and growth.3 Higher education needs a method that supports a systems-thinking and project-based approach for improvement. Key themes2 of LSS include:  A strong focus on the internal and external customer.  Use of clearly defined processes.  Data-driven d