Abstract
Over the last decade all kinds of e-government processes have been developed. Governments are seeking rationalization of these processes in order to save money while maintaining or improving service levels. In the private sector Lean methods have been used to achieve these goals, whereas these are hardly explored for e-government. The goal of this paper is to translate the concept of Lean to the field of government. An in-depth case study was conducted in which Lean was applied. Lean concepts like value stream and removing of waste proved to be useful. Some public sector characteristics impede the direct use of Lean concepts. We recommend to adjust Lean to the nature of e-government. Attention should be given to public values, fragmentation, financial aspects and culture when applying the concept of Lean in the public sector and e-government.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
References
Womack, J.P., Roos, D., Jones, D.: The Machine That Changed the World. Rawson and Associates, New York (1990)
George, M.L.: Lean Six Sigma for Service: How to Use Lean Speed and Six Sigma Quality to Improve Services and Transactions. McGraw-Hill (2003)
Hines, P., Holweg, M., Rich, N.: Learning to evolve A review of contemporary lean thinking. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 24, 994–1011 (2004)
Graban, M.: Lean Hospitals - Improving Quality. Patient Safety and Employee Satisfaction, New York (2009)
Pedersen, E.R.G., Huniche, M.: Determinants of lean success and failure in the Danish public sector A negotiated order perspective. International Journal of Public Sector Management 24, 403–420 (2011)
Radnor, Z., Walley, P., Stephens, A., Bucci, G.: Evaluation of the Lean Approach to Business Management and Its Use in the Public Sector (2006)
Radnor, Z., Boaden, R.: Lean in the public services: panacea or paradox? Public Money and Management 28, 3–7 (2008)
Mehri, D.: The darker side of lean: an insider’s perspective on the realities of the Toyota production system. Academy of Management Perspectives 20, 21–42 (2006)
Hines, P., Rich, N.: The Seven Value Stream Mapping Tools. International Journal of Operations and Production Managemen 17, 46–64 (1997)
Wu, Y.C.: Lean Manufacturing: A Perspective of Lean Suppliers. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 23, 1349–1376 (2003)
Erridge, A., Murray, J.G.: The application of lean supply in local government: the Belfast experiments. European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 4, 207–221 (1998)
Womack, J.P., Roos, D., Jones, D.: The Machine That Changed the World Rawson and Associates, New York (1990)
Jones, D.T., Mitchell, A.: Lean thinking for the NHS. NHS Confederation (2006)
Ohno, T.: Toyota production system: beyond large-scale production. Productivity Press, New York (1988)
Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T.: Lean Thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your organization. Simon & Schuster, New York (1996)
Bonaccorsi, A., Carmignani, G., Zammori, F.: Service Value Stream Management (SVSM): Developing Lean Thinking in the Service Industry. Journal of Service Science and Management, 428–439 (2011)
Carter, B., Danford, A., Howcroft, D., Richardson, H., Smith, A., Taylor, P.: Lean and mean in the civil service: the case of processing in HMRC. Public Money & Management (2011)
Bowen, D.E., Youngdahl, W.E.: ’Lean’ Service: In defense of a production line approach. International Journal of Service Industry Management 9, 207–225 (1998)
Piercy, N., Rich, N.: Lean transformation in the pure service environment: the case of the call service centre. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 29, 54–76 (2009)
Pedersen, E.R.G., Huniche, M.: Negotiating Lean; The fluidity and solidity of new management technologies in the Danish public sector. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management 60, 550–566 (2011)
Radnor, Z., Walley, P.: Learning to Walk Before We Try to Run: Adapting Lean for the Public Sector. Public Money & Management 28, 13–20 (2008)
Bharosa, N., Feenstra, R., Gortmaker, J., Klievink, B., Janssen, M.: Rethinking Service-oriented Government: is it really about services? In: Bouwman, H., Bons, R., Hoogeweegen, M., Janssen, M., Pronk, H. (eds.) Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom. Essays in Commemoration of Prof.dr. René Wagenaar. IOS Press, Delft (2008)
Rainey, H.G., Backoff, R.W., Levine, C.H.: Comparing Public and Private Organizations. Public Administration Review 36, 233–244 (1976)
Bhatia, N., Drew, J.: Applying Lean production to the public sector. The McKinsey Quarterly (2006)
Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research: Design and methods. Sage publications, Newbury Park (1989)
Orlikowski, W.J., Baroudi, J.J.: Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions. Information Systems Research 2, 1–28 (1991)
Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K., Mead, M.: The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems. MIS Quarterly 11, 369–386 (1987)
Armistead, C., Pritchard, J.-P., Machin, S.: Strategic business process management for organizational effectiveness. Long Range Planning 32, 96–106 (1999)
Horner, L., Hazel, L.: Adding public value. The Work Foundation (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Maarse, N., Janssen, M. (2012). The Need to Adjust Lean to the Public Sector. In: Scholl, H.J., Janssen, M., Wimmer, M.A., Moe, C.E., Flak, L.S. (eds) Electronic Government. EGOV 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7443. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33489-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33489-4_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33488-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33489-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)