Lean service operations and a lean management application at a foundation university

Lean service operations and lean management are becoming necessary for all service providers as much as tangibles/products providers. Most universities are not even aware of the concept of, lean thinking. However, universities and colleges can benefit from lean management in all their service areas such as admissions, the administration of research funds, hiring, and nearly any functional area where multi-step processes can be simplified and focused on the needs of the users served by the organization. Lean methodologies focus on reducing waste (Muda) and non-value-added activities by eliminating them or dealing with them to develop the performance of the process. This thesis aims to highlight the suitability of lean, which was developed in manufacturing, at a university's environment to enhance the efficiency of the operational tasks performed, and to provide suggestions for better performance. Lean methodologies were applied to two departments at a Turkish university, with the three most effective processes under these departments, to study the current state of the processes, and to provide suggestions and alternatives for the current issues faced, using Value Stream Mapping (VSM). As a result, Value-Added and Non-Value-Added activities were identified for each of the processes, with Indicative Ratios to compare the performance of the processes before and after applying lean. Overall, a proposal of the future state of the three processes was provided by the university's management.