Dear Colleagues,

When referring to Lean, we immediately make associations with Industry, services, and other sectors, in the drive for higher quality standards. We forget that knowledge is one of the keys to successfully making changes. The acquisition of knowledge and continuous education are critical towards the creation of a competitive, knowledge-based society.

Lean fundamentals lie in the Socratic method of questioning, the hypothesis development and data analysis of the scientific method, Henry Ford’s empowerment of people to improve processes, and the principles of creating a world-class organization through continuous improvement. Thus, Lean can be seen as a continuous improvement philosophy with extensive application due to its emphasis on improving methods.

Teaching lean principals and concepts is a difficult task. Although Lean can be seen as methodology that contributes to boosting organizations’ efficiency through the concept of zero waste, people are at the center of its philosophy. The best outcomes with lean practices come from deep engagement between the leadership and the workforce, where everyone should see improvement as part of their job responsibilities. Thus, talking about lean education is talking about teaching a culture with its different approaches, tools and applications.

Nevertheless, there is no perfect recipe to teach or implement lean practices. When teaching lean, it is important to provide tools and actively contribute to improving educational outcomes and the subsequent professional fulfillment. With the correct training, students from lean education courses can help to shape the future of what can be developed in manufacturing, services, healthcare, and technology companies rather than “reinventing the wheel”.

At the same time, lean principles and lean thinking could also be applied to improve higher education institutions’ services. The majority of problems faced by companies and organizations are common or have a connection between learning organizations. All types of organizations seek greater efficiency, and the benefits of the application of lean principles and practices based on iterative learning and continuous improvement could also be a valid approach to address some of the problems faced in education: teaching and research.

The principal aim of this Special Issue is to provide an opportunity for authors to describe and discuss experiences and research on the application of lean principles and methodologies in different contexts (industry, services, administration, health, higher education, etc.). Following the new trends the use of lean thinking principles can be applied to the teaching-learning process, improving practices in  education.

In particular, the main topics that this Special Issue aims to cover include:

• Lean management as a tool in the change of the managerial culture in higher education;
• Challenges and barriers in implementation and sustenance of Lean;
• Lean thinking application in higher education;
• Lessons learned in the application of lean principles in organizations and companies.

Research and review articles are therefore invited to be submitted to this Special Issue to contribute to a quality improvement approaches, highlighting lean in education.  

Authors are encouraged to submit state-of-the-art literature review articles, empirical studies, emerging trends on Lean in Education and Lean for Education, and case-study-related papers.

Prof. Celina Pinto Leão
Prof. Ana Cristina Ferreira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Lean education
• Lean for education
• Competencies
• Lean thinking
• PBL/TBL
• Active learning
• Lean projects
• Lean process improvement
• Value stream map
• Leadership
• Effective instruction
• Innovation in education