Lean Education

1
Lean Education

• Lean Industries Series

2
Topics

• What is Lean?
• What is Education?
• Lean Education
• Toyota Production System
• Applying Lean Thinking in Education
• Summary

3
What is Education?The Learning Cycle
4
What is Education?The Learning Cycle

• The cycle comprises four different stages of
  learning from experience and can be entered at
  any point but all stages must be followed in
  sequence for successful learning to take place.
• The Learning Cycle suggests that it is not
  sufficient to have an experience in order to
  learn. It is necessary to reflect on the
  experience to make generalizations and formulate
  concepts which can then be applied to new
  situations.
• This learning must then be tested out in new
  situations. The learner must make the link
  between the theory and action by planning, acting
  out, reflecting and relating it back to the
  theory.

5
Lean EducationProcess of Assessing Knowledge
Students Receive

• Test
• Students should be examined to see if they
  achieved the stated objectives
• The tests should provide immediate feedback to
  students so students would have a chance to go
  back to materials and achieve the objectives in
  the next attempt
• Teachers should talk to students who need help

6
Toyota Production System

• TPS Terms
• Kanban A small sign that is the key control for
  the Just-In-Time production
• Heijunka The overall leveling, in the
  production schedule, of the volume and variety of
  items produced in given time periods
• Genchi Genbutsu Go see the problem. This is the
  belief that practical experience is valued over
  theoretical knowledge. You must see the problem
  to know the problem.

7
Applying Lean to Education
8
Summary

• Lean thinking not only changes the way of
  manufacturing, but also can be the way to improve
  any kind of organization
• The study of lean thinking concepts, tools and
  processes concentrate on delivering value to
  students
• The objective of using the lean model in
  education is
• To identify the ultimate customer
• To use the mapping value stream to remove waste
• To create flows for the value
• To pull each element when needed
• To pursue perfection

9
Summary
BEFORE APPLYING LEAN CONCEPTS AFTER APPLYING LEAN CONCEPTS
Faculty has control on course contents and instructional styles Student benefits are the first to concern in creating instructions
Students might not know what they will learn The objectives are stated clearly to students so they know what to expect
Boundary of content is not clear and might be different with different teacher The whole course is planned out before, so there is a standard in each course
Knowledge is pushed to students Students study at their own pace
Only courses that have enough students are opened Every course is opened every semester
Students might finish the course with poor understanding Students have better understanding with unit-perfection requirement for advance
Faculty and students rarely have relationship outside classroom Closer relationship between students and faculty is created
Students have to get advisor signature for class registration The information is available for students to decide what class they want to take
Programs and courses are hard to find The information is available online and easy to access
Overload of assignments without an objective Cross-disciplined and personalized assignment is created