NY U
departments who don’t have a LEAN team. Success with LEAN didn’t end with and Rutgers supported his eff orts to ad-
The state regents have been extremely process improvement either. At Berkeley’s dress them.
supportive, requesting LEAN training for bi-weekly leadership meetings, a selected With cooperation from Johnson &
their own offices. Legislators also perceive the employee would report on a LEAN project Johnson and AT&T, Ruben surfaced
University of Central Oklahoma as a well-run in his or her area. Th e employee’s story of problems that seemed to thwart total qual-
organization because of success stories from the department’s success in applying LEAN ity management (TQM) concepts within
LEAN. This year’s budget cuts for higher edu- would oft en result in spontaneous applause. higher education. Th e academy has its own
cation not only have generated more support “LEAN is a gift that keeps on giving. It is so culture, and faculty involvement extends to
for LEAN techniques, but have motivated easy to understand,” Coley told me. “I can the administration of the campus. Ruben
other institutions to send their staff to Central give you fi ft een examples of how this has explained, “What looked to us like custom-
Oklahoma for LEAN training. transformed the organization.” er service could look to faculty like we were
As Kusler tells it, “We all want an av- When he arrived at Berkeley, some putting students in charge. So Johnson &
enue to be successful. In this case, we’ve questioned why Coley was promoting this. Johnson personnel advised it would be im-
taken continuous improvement principles Aft er all Berkeley was already one of the portant to take the culture into account.”
and successfully adapted them to higher ed- best public institutions in the world. He To b e e ff ective as change agents Ruben
ucation. We can train you at Central Okla- responded that achieving the same excel- and his associates needed to translate busi-
homa or will come to your university, and lence on the administrative side as on the ness concepts into terms faculty would ac-
you’re ready to hit the ground running.” academic side would free up resources. Es- cept. So they developed their own version
pecially in California, “We can no longer of Baldrige quality awards, which they called
LEAN and Six-Sigma comparisons aff ord to do what we’ve done in the past,” Excellence in Higher Education. “Rather
Th e epicenter for Six-Sigma/LEAN strat- Coley explains. than argue over terms like Six-Sigma and
egies may be the National Conference change management, we would rather argue
for Continuous Improvement (NCCI). Opportunities in New Jersey over concepts. Th is was very important in
I talked to Ron Coley, one of its founding Dr. Brent Ruben is executive director of order to have buy-in from faculty for our ef-
members, and Associate Vice Chancellor at the Center for Organizational Develop- forts,” Ruben recounts.
University of California, Berkeley. Coley ment and Leadership at Rutgers, was In tight times, some may consider these
had used Six-Sigma but got the opportu- and he brings with him a background in initiatives expendable,. But when you have
nity to compare it with LEAN at NCCI healthcare. He was familiar with patient to make tough choices, they help consider-
conferences. Comparing the two, he con- evaluations of their health care based on ably to clarify goals and fi nd effi ciencies.
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cluded employees adapt more easily to consumer standards, rather than by the
LEAN rather than the rigor of Six-Sigma. clinical criteria used by health-care provid-
Six-Sigma has a signifi cant eff ect on those ers. Ruben was struck by the disconnect
immediately involved in the process, but between hospitals and patients. He was
Paul Bylaska is vice president
LEAN motivates a cultural transformation. also struck by a similar situation between of fi nance and administration
“Employees even went home and told their campuses and students. Ruben stressed
at Clarion University of Penn-
sylvania. He can be reached at
spouses about it,” Coley shared. the quality movement and customer focus,
pbylaska@clarion.edu.
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