A STUDY OF LEAN IMPLEMENTATION FOR FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IN SINGAPORE �S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Abstract

Lean, a management philosophy with its origins from The Toyota Production System, has been adopted in other industries over the years due to its success in enhancing value and eliminating wastes to the organization. While the level of Lean adoption has been increasing in the Construction industry, healthcare sector and service sectors, the level of Lean adoption in facility management is relatively unknown. Hence, this study analyses the list of fourteen Lean production principles and seeks to develop an understanding as to whether the Lean production principles (LPPs), which are most commonly used by the manufacturing companies, are relevant to the facility personnel’s scope of work. The research scope focus on the international schools located in Singapore. For the purpose of this study, a conceptual framework that focuses on the applicability of bridging the fourteen Lean production principles with the workings of facility management has been developed. Consequently, the key survey and case study findings revealed that LPP 6 (standardizes tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment), LPP 9 (grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others), LPP 10 (develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy), LPP 12 (go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation) and LPP 14 (become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement) are generally more important as compared to the other LPPs. On the other hand, LPP 3 (use “pull” system to avoid overproduction) is considered the least important principle.

After analysing the research findings, a set of Lean FM principles for international schools was proposed at the end of this study.