Continuous Improvement in Higher Education: How to Begin Your Institutions Lean Journey

Is your college or university struggling with how to adapt to budget cuts, changing student needs, technology, or regulatory changes? Do you have a program or staff assigned to help coordinate change efforts? Are you ready to become more proactive in how you react to the changes that affect your institution? Structured continuous process-improvement programs have benefitted manufacturing companies for decades, but what works in manufacturing does not work the same way in education

This book, written by a higher education Lean practitioner using real examples from higher education, shows you how to create a continuous-improvement program specifically for higher education It walks you through the key steps for building your first-year continuous-improvement plan. It provides templates, checklists, and best practices to assist in your planning process. Whether you are a Lean novice or a current Lean/continuous-improvement practitioner, this book will add tools to your tool kit and lay the groundwork for successful change initiatives.

Bonnie Slykhuis is currently a Lean Consultant for Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Ankeny, Iowa. She holds a B.A. in Biology and Secondary Education from Central College and a Masters in Training & Development from Drake University. Bonnie is responsible for implementing Lean initiatives throughout DMACC’s six campuses, developing lean curriculum, and providing training and consulting services to external manufacturing, service, government and education clients. She is a certified Master Trainer for workplacelean(R) (office lean) and a certified trainer for NIST/MEP Lean (manufacturing lean) having conducted over 1000 Lean sessions for more than 130 organizations both in and out of state. She is also a certified instructor for leadership and soft skills programs such as MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), DDI (Developmental Dimensions International), Achieve Global and Logic Opera.

Prior to DMACC Bonnie was employed as a K-12 educator then by such companies as Pella Corporation, 3M Company and Maytag Corporation. Areas of employment included production, safety, training, organizational development, and supervision. From 2002-2006 Bonnie also owned and operated her own small manufacturing business.