Operating model: an exploration of the concept

Operating model: an exploration of the concep

Drivers of change in the UK Fire Service: an operations management perspective

The UK Fire and Rescue Service is subject to reform, along with other public sector services, resulting in later retirement age and budget limitations; the fire service is also subject to other societal changes such as shifts in fitness levels and a reduction in call outs. This chapter reviews these changes and considers them from an operations management perspective. A method for how to measure operational effectiveness is proposed and its use in informing changes to operating practice in the fire service is advocated

Wider applications for Lean: an examination of the fundamental principles within public sector organisations

Purpose – The lean enterprise model has been adopted in a wide range of industries beyond its origins in the motor industry. To achieve this there has been a considerable extension of the lean concept outside high-volume repetitive manufacture. The purpose of this paper is to present an in-depth study of the application of lean within the British Royal Air Force. It offers a number of new insights which have implications for the future development and adoption of lean in service contexts, and the public sector in particular. Design/methodology/approach – To illustrate the issues of application of lean outside automotive, this paper considers the adoption of the lean concept by the Tornado joint integrated project team within the UK Ministry of Defence. A review of methods of application of lean used within Tornado are studied. The paper considers how the fundamental principles of lean apply in this environment and how, considering these principles, methods of implementation should be modified. Findings – This paper finds that the five lean fundamental principles apply in Tornado but they need to considered specifically within the public service context particularly the pull principle. Hence the authors offer three propositions relating to the use of the lean principles of value, waste, flow and pull in the public sector, and one for perfection only relating to military organisations. Originality/value – This paper makes an important contribution by demonstrating that lean can be successfully applied, in a public service context, with only modest modifications to its core principles, principally about how customer demand (pull) is managed. The implication of this finding demonstrates that to be adopted successfully, lean must be adapted to its context and the lean principles need to be reviewed too

Open innovation in Health and Social Care: ICT supported co-creation of quality improvements

Open innovation in Health and Social Care: ICT supported co-creation of quality improvement

A classification model of the lean barriers and enablers: a case from Brazilian healthcare

Lean is widely known as an approach to improve the process, reducing wastes and adding value to the customer. However, around 70% of the lean projects fail during its journey, this situation is related to barriers and enablers to implement lean projects. Thus, this paper aims to analyse and classify lean barriers and enablers into an organizational model. The methodology is based on systematic literature review as well as a case study. The paper presents a classification model into seven organizational aspects as well as propositions related to patient’s behaviour and the public healthcare system

The aftermath of modernization: examining the impact of a change agenda on local government employees in the UK

The aftermath of modernization: examining the impact of a change agenda on local government employees in the U

Sustainability ... a guide to ... process improvement

Sustainability ... a guide to ... process improvemen

Introduction: the role and substance of public service operations management

This introductory chapter establishes the need for a book on Public Service Operations Management and then through unpacking the structure and content of the book explore what is meant by Public Service Operations Management

Lean armed forces

This is the first volume to provide an academically rigorous overview of the field of lean management, introducing the reader to the application of lean in diverse application areas, from the production floor to sales and marketing, from the automobile industry to academic institutions

Towards a common measure of operational effectiveness for the UK Fire and Rescue Service

Operational effectiveness explains how well an organisation is performing in terms of maximising their resources to provide goods and/or services and reduce deficits. Within conventional operations management (OM), performance objectives focus around quality, cost, flexibility, speed and dependability. Performance measures can then be designed to ascertain how closely an organisation is meeting those objectives. Performance monitoring within the UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is directed around the data required annually by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on key performance indicators and these reporting systems are seen as exemplars of the new public management profile across Europe (Carvalho, Fernandes, Lambert and Lapsley, 2006). However comparisons between services become difficult due to variation in how this data are reported across the different services. A toolkit exists within the UK FRS to assist services as part of peer auditing which can be used for services to become more self-aware of their performance and help with strategy development (CFOA, 2012). This has been service developed and so features key areas of concern for Fire and Rescue Services associated with the delivery of effective fire and rescue provision for the public. We argue that this toolkit does not allow for rigorous empirical comparisons between services as part of organisational research and improvement processes. Much of the toolkit uses subjective qualitative benchmarking which serves as a useful tool for giving meaningful feedback to services on performance but is problematic when tracking changes over time and between services. We propose that by using a common framework to measure operational effectiveness that is based on existing quantitative data, the UK FRS will be able to make meaningful comparisons and offer a clearer insight in to performance of individual services useful for strategic planning. In addition, it will offer an empirically developed, standardised tool for measuring operational effectiveness when conducting research with the FRS community. This article outlines the development of such a framework with one UK FRS, to be known as ‘The Shires’ to protect anonymity, and a case study of how it has been used within another FRS, ‘The Counties’, to measure performance as part of an ongoing review of specific organisational change activities within the service; the introduction of Day Crewing Plus