The foundation for Lean Education Enterprises, Inc.’s Le2 Program was laid in the 1600s, when Rene Descartes developed the scientific method as an approach to scientific inquiry. Although Descartes applied his method to science, the principles turned out to be equally effective for areas outside pure science. Early in the 20th century Henry Ford modified Descartes’ principles to guide process improvement within manufacturing. Ford’s principles, in turn, were perfected and expanded to general business process improvement by W. Edwards Deming, who assisted the United States in its effort to improve the quality of war materiel produced during World War II. After the war ended, Japanese industrial leaders and engineers invited Deming to Japan for advice on producing innovative, quality products.
The Toyota Motor Company, a small truck maker struggling for survival at the end of World War II, implemented Deming’s approach to great success. Dubbed the Toyota Production System, this adaptation of scientific method-based process improvement resulted in the most powerful model devised to date for efficient design and management of small and large-scale business operations. Using it, Toyota secured its position as the world’s largest automaker a mere 30 years later in the 2000’s. In an effort to remain competitive, western businesses studied Toyota’s system. MIT researchers coined the name Lean for the new system because of its ability to do so much more with less than traditional approaches.
SUCCESSFULLY ADAPTED TO SERVICE INDUSTRIES
Within the last decade, Lean process improvement has expanded to the service industries (e.g. banking, law enforcement, insurance service centers) with equal success. Integrating simple tools and unique social/management practices, Lean now has been developed for and successfully adapted to general office work and, most recently, in the healthcare industry.
In a landmark study begun in 2001 and sponsored by the Innovation and Organizational Change Program of the National Science Foundation titled “Innovating Health Care Delivery Using Toyota Production System Principles,” the application of Lean principles to a hospital environment demonstrated significant gains in efficiency in process improvement, performance levels in patient care, and measurable savings both in staff time and real dollars spent.
USE IN EDUCATION URGED BY THE RAND CORPORATION
The feasibility and transferability of Lean principles and practices to education was studied by the Rand Corporation’s Education Division. In its 2004 report, “Organizational Improvement and Accountability - Lessons for Education from Other Sectors”, Rand concluded that Lean principles offer enormous potential for improvement in school and district operations and performance, and even more accountability than the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program. The study also noted the need for modification of Lean business principles to meet the unique needs of education, an industry quite unlike any other both in its product and its processes.
DEVELOPED FOR EDUCATION BY AN EDUCATOR
Lean Education Enterprises, Inc. accepted that challenge. Combining an educator’s inside knowledge of the education process and a business specialist’s understanding and proficiency at successful Lean application, the Le2 Program applies the same science and data-based assessment to audit and improve existing school processes in the areas of student learning, curriculum and instruction, and resource administration.
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