Faculty
Malek Maalouf

Course Coordinator
Malek Maalouf

Basic knowledge about Lean and/or reading of the first 3 chapters of the following book:

1- Womack, J., Jones, D.T. and Ross, D. (1990), The Machine That Changed the World, Rawson Associates, New York, NY.

The implementation of Lean is considered by many authors to be a radical change in the organizations. Despite attempts, many companies have not been able to capture or sustain the benefits of a lean transformation. From the literature, it is clear that Lean represents a fundamental change and that in order to succeed the companies should be willing to perform the transformation needed to implement and sustain this philosophy within the organization. The success of lean implementation depends on achieving a change in the core values of the company. Many authors attribute the failure in achieving the results expected from lean implementation to focus on implementing the technical tools and neglecting the cultural and strategic side of lean.

In this course I will focus on Lean in the Service sector (Financial, Healthcare and Public Sector). I will use cases of Service companies that have implemented or trying to implement lean and link them to the content and theories discussed in the class.

The course is composed of lectures supported by cases and reading of cited articles.

The course starts with a presentation of Lean Tools (the hard part of lean) and Lean Philosophy (the soft part of lean). In the following lectures, I will present and discuss how to translate and implement these principles and tools in the service sector.

After the course, the student will be able to understand the principles and tools of Lean and their implementation in the service sector.

The students will practice the reading of articles from high ranking journals.

The students will improve the ability to extract relevant information and insights from a book or an article.

The students will also present and discuss findings and comments in groups.

In order to achieve the grade 12 at the exam, the students must be able to understand and justify how and why lean principles and tools have been adapted and changed in order to fit the service sector.

Individual project exam/home assignment (Danish or English according to the student)

Basic reading:

The following articles are basic reading and will be referred to during the course:

Hines, P. et al. (2004), Learning to evolve: A review of contemporary lean thinking, International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 24, N0. 10, 2004 pp. 994-1011.

Holweg M. (2007), The genealogy of lean production, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 25, Issue 2,March 2007, P. 420-437.

Selected chapters from the following 3 books will also be recommended during the course before the respective lectures:

1- Womack, J., Jones, D.T. and Ross, D. (1990), The Machine that Changed the World, Rawson Associates, New York, NY.

2- Womack, J. and Jones, D. (2003), Lean Thinking, Simon & Schuster, London.

3- George, M. (2003), Lean Six Sigma for service: How to use Lean speed and Six Sigma quality to improve services and transactions, McGraw Hill (2003), USA.