Lean: A failed theory for public services?

Abstract

‘Lean’ has become a popular approach to public service reform. In the current era of reduced public spending, it promises to maintain service productivity, improve utilisation and maintain quality. Drawing on literature and empirical data, this paper will argue that the implementation of Lean to date has been defective – it has focused on the technical tools of implementation without an over-arching business logic to validate it. This paper will argue that Lean can only achieve its potential in public services when based within a public service dominant business logic. Without this, Lean is doomed to fail both as a theory and a set of practices.

Key words:

• Lean
• service management
• service dominant logic, public service reform, improvement

Notes

The full methodology of this review is presented in the report itself (Radnor, 2010a).

Value stream mapping is the identification of all the specific activities occurring along a value stream for a product or product family (or service).

Importantly, this does not imply any active willingness to co-produce upon behalf of the user – simply that it is impossible to use a service without, in some way, contributing to its co-production (Korkman, 2006). This might be at a minimal level (by co-producing an insurance policy by inputting your personal details) or more holistically (by co-producing a vacation experience through your needs, desires and involvement in ‘your’ holiday).

It would be a mistake to believe that it has undermined it however. Rather it had both changed the terrain on which this co-production is enacted (Dunleavy et al., 2006; Kinder, 2000; Pascu and Van Lieshout, 2009) and in some cases transferred power to service users and citizens by breaking down the professional and political control of key public service information that has hitherto existed (Bekkers et al., 2011). At the extreme, some authors have argued that this has increased the potential for the active co-production of public services rather than reduce it (Margetts, 2009).