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3. Analysis of Results

This section analyses the information obtained from the survey, and has been presented in the order of the questions asked on the questionnaire.

1. Please list the Lean projects that you have been involved with in your organisation and provide a brief summary of them.

It is not surprising that all respondents have undertaken Lean projects and this is a prime motivator for them to respond to the questionnaire. The largest proportion of respondents had only undertaken one or two projects. However it is noteworthy that 50% of the respondents have undertaken 5 or more Lean projects, showing either that in some organisations, individuals are taking the concept of Lean very seriously or there is a misunderstanding about what Lean is and what continuous improvement is. It could be perceived that these organisations are not seeing Lean as an overall philosophy and approach but rather as a number of stand-alone projects e.g. Kaizen Blitz or Rapid Improvement Events. This supports the research findings in Annex 3 of the evaluation. Many comments went into great detail on the projects undertaken ( see Section 4).

2. Please list the departments and/or areas of your organisation in which the Lean projects have been implemented.

There was a range of comments to this question. Many respondents made references to projects undertaken in departments, but did not specifically mention the departments. The departments mentioned the most were housing, finance and administration. Several organisations have sought to implement Lean across all departments.

3. What was the original aim of the Lean projects your organisation has implemented?

This question gave respondents the option to choose any number of aims from a list of to specify their own original aim(s) for implementing Lean. The responses are presented in Chart 3.

Chart 3. The original aim of the Lean projects undertaken

Total number of responses = 105

The three main aims of the Lean projects are to improve quality, improve customer satisfaction and to reduce lead-time. These account for 52% of responses. Interestingly 21% of projects aimed to impact upon staff, either by increasing motivation or by increasing their decision making potential. Cost reduction was cited as an aim in only 10% of projects. Workforce reduction is not an important aim in Lean projects in the public sector, only accounting for 3% of projects. Other aims proposed by respondents included managing workforce duplication / reallocation, managing continuous improvement, addressing backlogs and improving the work for staff.

4. Does your organisation have any plans to implement Lean in other areas / departments?

Of the 19 respondents that answered this question, 100% said that their organisation had plans to implement Lean in other areas or departments.

5. If yes, please specify where and why.

The majority of respondents are planning to implement Lean projects in a few other departments. However there was no mention of which departments these would be. Of the specific departments mentioned housing, finance and administration were once again the areas singled out for further projects. In several organisations many projects are being planned and in one organisation, over 40 projects have been identified.

6. How long was the implementation phase of the Lean projects?

The implementation phase of project varied greatly from 3 months to over 3 years. However in many instances the implementation of project is ongoing. This is typical and supports the idea of Lean being an approach or a philosophy.

7. What proportion of your overall organisation has been involved in implementing Lean projects?

When asked about the proportion of the organisation involved in implementing Lean projects, the largest proportion of comments stated that between 5% and 10% of the organisation was involved. However approximately 57% of comments stated that less than 25% of the organisation was involved and a further 15% of comments could not determine what proportion had been involved. Only 19% of comments stated that more than 25% of the organisation was involved. Encouragingly almost 10% of comments stated that they were planning to increase involvement.

8. What have been the other resource implications of implementing the Lean projects?

The main comments regarding other resources focus on the need for additional internal staff and time commitment, while 30% expressed the need for additional funding or additional external staff in the form of consultants. Interestingly, only 10% of comments focused on the need to invest in training or awareness.

9. What tools and techniques have been used in the Lean projects?

Respondents were provided with a list of tools and techniques from which they could choose to indicate their prevalence in Lean projects. There were a wide variety of answers to this question. However, it is clear from the responses provided that the main tool used in the Lean projects was process mapping. Other tools and techniques mentioned included process simplification, waste reduction, systems thinking and the use of the balanced scorecard. The actual number and percentage split for each comment is shown below.

Chart 4. Tools and techniques used in the Lean projects

10. What external support is your organisation utilising to assist with the implementation of the Lean projects?

Respondents were able to choose more than one option or state an alternative. The responses are presented in Chart 5.

Chart 5. External organisations providing support

Total number of responses = 33

When asked about utilising external support in implementing Lean projects, 64% of responses stated that customers or a specialised consultancy was providing assistance. These proportions are very similar to other surveys undertaken in the manufacturing sectors where the use of customers and consultancies are often stated as the main external support. There was no mention of the specific organisation that had provided the support, however it is clear from the comments made to other questions that Vanguard had supported the Lean projects in several organisations. It is interesting to note that 9% of respondents stated that no external support had been provided. However it should also be noted that in many cases, a combination of organisations were providing support. Other types of support used include partner organisations and other private sector organisations.

11. If you have utilised external support, how effective has this support been?

Chart 6.0 Effectiveness of external support

Total number of responses = 16

The use of external support was seen as effective or very effective by the majority of respondents, with almost 90% of them going for one of these two options. In no circumstance was the external support seen as ineffective.

12. What strategies have been used to engage staff in the Lean projects?

In response to this question, the most common comment was a consultation or communication with staff. In many cases this was in the form of road-shows, videos or surveys. As in question 8 above, the use of structured formal training only accounted for a small proportion of comments (7%). In contrast the use of workshops and awareness raising sessions accounted for a higher proportion of comments (14%).

13. In general how successful have these strategies been?

When judging the success of strategies to engage staff, 90% of respondents believed that their strategies had been either successful or very successful. In no circumstance were any strategies viewed as unsuccessful.

Chart 7. Success of strategies to engage staff

Total number of responses = 20

However with reference to the comments made in question 7, the majority of organisations involved less than a quarter of their organisation in the lean projects. It is interesting to note that on closer analysis of responses to this question and question 7, respondents claiming that strategies to engage staff were neither successful nor unsuccessful were those that had previously stated that more than a quarter of the organisation had been involved in the projects. It appears that the more people that are involved in the Lean projects, the harder it is to make a judgement about the level of their engagement.

14. How has progress on the Lean projects been communicated through the organisation?

Respondents were able to choose more than one communication option, or state an alternative. The responses are presented in Chart 8

Chart 8. Methods of communicating progress

Total number of responses = 55

The main method used for communicating progress on the Lean projects was through meetings. In some cases respondents actually stated whether these were individual or group meetings. The use of intranets as a method of communicating was also high, accounting for 20% of the comments. Respondents could highlight as many methods as were relevant, with many highlighting two or three options. Only 4% of respondents highlighted that progress was not communicated. Other methods stated as being used to communicate progress included reports and working groups.

15. If progress has been communicated, how successful has this communication been?

Chart 9. Success of communication methods

Total number of responses = 17

Although 76% of respondents believed that methods for communicating progress to staff were either successful or very successful, 24% of respondents believed that the methods used were neither successful nor unsuccessful. This is a higher proportion for this response than that highlighted by respondents in questions 11 and 13.

16. Which of the following proposed aims of the Lean projects have been achieved?

Chart 10. Percentage of aims achieved

Total number of responses = 93

Chart 11. Percentage of aims not achieved

Total number of responses = 13

This question asked respondents to state whether the Lean projects implemented had achieved their original aims, as specified in question 3. As highlighted in Chart 10 above, many respondents claimed that the Lean project had been successful. However there were some instances where project did not achieve their original aim, as highlighted below in Chart 11. These are mainly concerned with projects aimed at reducing costs or the workforce. As in previous questions of this type, respondents were able to choose more than one option, or state an alternative. The responses are presented in Charts 10 and 11.

17. What have been the factors contributing to the success of the Lean projects?

When considering the factors that contributed to the success of he Lean projects, the most important was commitment to ongoing improvement from management. However all factors cited are those consistent with key success factors required to implement successful projects reported in the literature (Annex 1). Also important was the experience of the delivery team, although training was not considered to be as important. This supports the comments regarding training provided at questions 8 and 12 above and may indicate that experience of implementing Lean projects is more important than undergoing formal training in lean concepts, tools and techniques.

18. What have been the barriers to implementing Lean projects and/or realising success?

The most important barrier to implementing Lean projects was organisational culture and a resistance to change, accounting for almost 30% of comments. Lack of awareness or knowledge of Lean was also seen as an important barrier. However as indicated above, in order to overcome this barrier, awareness raising sessions and practical experience of Lean may be more useful than structured formal training.

19. Has there been any evaluation of the impact of the Lean projects? If so, please provide a brief summary.

Many comments were made regarding the evaluations that had been undertaken (see Section 4). It is important to note that evaluations are being undertaken. However in many cases, these evaluations are used to demonstrate the success of the projects rather than highlighting what lessons could be learnt from the project or how they could be implemented better in future i.e. based upon measures and outputs rather than outcomes.

20. Is there anything else that has not been covered above that you wish to tell us about Lean in your organisation?

There were not many comments to this question, nor was there much consistency between the comments. Some organisations were convinced of the benefits of implementing Lean in the public sector, while some were less sure that manufacturing techniques could be transferred. However these comments do seem to point in the direction of it being early days in terms of determining whether Lean techniques are applicable in the public sector and that some coordination and transfer of knowledge between projects would be of greater benefit to the public sector.

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