Conceptualising Lean in Secondary Education:

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Conceptualising Lean in Secondary Education:

What is the Pupil in Personalised Learning?

J.M. Dam

j.m.dam.1@student.rug.nl s2592010

Master’s Thesis TOM (course code: EBM766B20.2015-2016.1) Supervisor: prof. dr. I.F.A. Vis

Co-assessor: dr. J. Riezebos

MSc Technology and Operations Management

Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Nettelbosje 2, 9747 AE Groningen, The Netherlands

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Abstract

In personalised learning, secondary education institutions are organised around the pupils by which they will be better prepared for their future, better supported, and challenged more. Lean thinking has played an important role in manufacturing in the development from mass production towards customisation. In this thesis research we pursue to describe the personalised learning educational system in secondary education by means of lean terminology. Data is collected from semi-structured interviews conducted in multiple contexts of lean application, such as manufacturing, distribution logistics, and healthcare. We conceptualise lean in secondary education by means of a conversion table for the lean principles (and objectives).

Our conceptualisation describes personalised learning as an educational system in which learning paths are defined tailored to a pupil’s need. Learning paths need to be constructed from both standardised modules and choices. An extensive external and internal consulting structure for improvement, and data analyses to forecast pupils’ behaviour in decision-making facilitate this system. We advice educational institutions to further operationalise the conceptualisation from an organization-specific (improvement) culture inspired by lean philosophy.

Summarising, the academic and managerial contributions of this research are threefold: (1) lean application in core educational processes, (2) results obtained by consultation of and interaction between lean practitioners from different lean contexts in the translation process, and (3) suggestions for the organisational design of personalised learning educational systems.

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1 Introduction

Traditional educational systems have been designed and developed over the years to prepare pupils and students for the labour market. However, by the time they graduate, the current labour market requirements will be outdated to an unknown extent; we are educating for professions which do not even exist at this time. This tension has also been recognised in Dutch politics (Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, 2014). A shift of shares in employment is visible from agriculture and manufacturing, to services and health care sectors, when labour market developments are placed in historical perspective (Huizinga & Smid, 2004). To mitigate the accompanied economical risks, the Association of universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) (2015) has set up their vision on future studying. Universities are willing to change their organisation in accordance with their ambition to become institutes for shaping and widely developing young people, so that students are challenged to get the best out of themselves.

A parallel could be drawn to Dutch secondary education which is still organised similar to classic factories: the school bell announces the beginning and ending of the lesson, and pupils are taught in groups based on age, similar to manufacturing batches (Bisschop & Van Moll, 2015). This thesis researches personalised learning, one of the handles for redesign of secondary education institutions. ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’ is an initiatives is a collaboration of twelve educational institutions to exploit pupils’ talents and provide education to get the best out of them (Zo.Leer.Ik!, 2014). Since the establishment of the project ‘Leerling 2020’ by the sector organisation of secondary education (VO-raad) working towards personalised learning in secondary education, the ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’-initiative is supported by this project. It is set up for pupils to be better prepared for their future, better supported, and challenged more (Leerling 2020, 2015). Such a system implies a one-to-one cooperation between teacher and pupil, however this creates a both financially infeasible and thus undesirable situation, apart from social considerations. The challenge of this thesis therefore is to investigate the organisation of personalised learning in secondary education.

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which appeared for the first time in the book ‘The Machine That Changed the World’ (Womack, Jones, & Roos, 1990), and was the title of their successive book (Womack & Jones, 1996). “The focus of lean is on flow, the value stream and eliminating ‘muda’, the Japanese word for waste, by performing ‘kaizen’ events” (Hopp & Spearman, 2008, p. 171). As almost has become common knowledge; the origin of lean lies in the Toyota Production System (TPS). Holweg (2007) provides an historical overview on the emergence of this term in his genealogy of lean production. A recent review of lean manufacturing literature concludes with research issues stating “there is lack of a standard lean manufacturing implementation process or framework” (Bhamu & Singh Sangwan, 2014, p. 923). This forms the motivation to conceptualise lean in secondary education to organise and facilitate personalised learning. Intuitively, lean has promises for secondary education in terms of, for example, elimination of under- and over-performing pupils, and a customer focus in organising a learning program suiting each individual pupil. However, these statements are yet based on a preliminary, unvalidated conceptualisation.

Applications of lean are present throughout multiple contexts, such as manufacturing, government, healthcare, higher education, the legal sector, and library services. Hence, literature streams covering all these fields are investigated to work towards the application of lean to the new context of secondary education. Identification of lessons learned from the implementation of lean in contemporary fields of use will take place to form the starting point for drawing parallels from to secondary education. The goal of this thesis is to describe the personalised learning educational system by means of lean terminology. This conceptualisation involves the key educational terms and the most important stakeholders, that are defined as a first step. The academic and managerial contributions of this research are threefold: (1) lean application in core educational processes, (2) results obtained by consultation of and interaction between lean practitioners from different lean contexts in the translation process, and (3) suggestions for the organisational design of personalised learning educational systems.

In order to achieve the aforementioned goal of this thesis, a central research question and a set of associated sub-research questions have been composed.

Central research question:

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Sub-research questions (SRQs):

SRQ1. What knowledge from lean is applicable to the context of personalised learning? SRQ2. What are the elements of personalised learning in secondary education?

SRQ3. What is the prioritisation of the elements for personalised learning in secondary education for conceptualisation?

SRQ4. How to conceptualise the personalised learning elements in lean terminology? SRQ5. How to validate the conceptualisation of lean in secondary education?

1.1 Methodology

The set of research questions is answered by carrying out the following research design, in which each SRQ is treated methodologically.

The answer to SRQ1 is based on literature research, hereby starting the exploratory phase of the research for this thesis. “Reviewing academic literature will help to establish the authority and legitimacy of the research, and will ensure the ‘researchability’ of the topic before empirical analysis starts” (Croom, 2009, p. 48). Practise is indeed involved from SRQ4 on, also denoted as the model development phase in this research. Review and case study (story) articles will be the focus in the search for literature to make a secondary evaluation of literature by means of a cross-context literature review. The literature research works towards the identification of lean concepts for the conceptualisation of lean in secondary education. Before that however, a parallel process takes place composing a short list of educational elements for personalised learning, the result of SRQs 2 and 3; the other half of the exploratory phase. Author’s comprehensive, recent, and first-hand experience as a pupil and student in the Dutch educational system is addressed to form a preliminary answer to SRQ2. To avoid the bias of unilateralism, the expertise on secondary education Value Stream Maps (VSMs) of a fellow researcher in the personalised learning project is consulted. A validated long list of elements for personalised learning in secondary education forms the result after investigating SRQ2.

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others, involved in the aforementioned ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’-initiative to innovate Dutch secondary education. Submissions are collected afterwards via e-mail. Such small mail surveys are the appropriate research method in this case, because it allows the accompanied benefits from this method to be exploited. Most importantly in this exploratory phase of the research, these are ‘ease of securing information’, ‘highest accuracy of information’, and ‘overall reliability and validity’ (Forza, 2002). After combining the results from the entries, a prioritisation is constructed. Next a selection of the most important elements for personalised learning in secondary education is made, covering the educational scope of the research for this thesis. As already announced, from SRQ4 on, the empirical part of this research commences with model development. Semi-structured interviews are chosen as suitable research method. Here, Forza’s (2002) factors influencing coverage and secured information apply, however the highest score of personal interviews on ‘completeness, including sensitive materials’ becomes dominant during this research phase. Moreover, to enhance reliability and validity of the interview data, an interview protocol is established (Yin, 1994), as can be retrieved in chapter 3. An expert-verified personalised learning case is drafted to get interviewees acquainted with the ambition of this sort of education, by which a certain knowledge level is assured as a starting point for the remainder of the interviews (see also chapter 3).

Interviewee selection is based on the availability of preferred experts who are empirically experienced in lean implementations in different fields and are familiar with the present state, traditional, educational system in The Netherlands. Emphasis is put on certification in the lean six sigma belt based training system. This includes line officers, consultants, and publishers of professional literature in trade magazines and blogs. The expectation is that the analysis of data from these interviews will show key insights for lean implementation in different contexts. Lastly, this is presented in a conversion table describing lean concepts in terms of the most important educational elements.

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more discovered while mirroring these findings to the educational context during an interview with the principal of the Fioretti College, Hillegom (NL), and an interview with the principal of the Picasso Lyceum, Zoetermeer (NL), experienced in personalised learning. Invitations for the roundtable were sent to the research participants from the semi-structured interviews and stakeholders of ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’ with an educational background as new participants, such as the principals of the mirroring interviews, to ensure a broad and objective validation. During the roundtable session, research findings and their implications are presented and afterwards discussed by means of statements containing discrepancies from the interviews or preliminary research conclusions. The roundtable method moreover reduces the risks of observer bias. The research methodology for all SRQs is summarised in the research design model in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Research design

Research method Result Research

phase

SRQ1. Literature research

Lean concepts for

conceptualisation of lean in secondary education

Exploration SRQ2.

Author’s experience in

education Long list of elements for personalised learning in secondary education Consultation fellow researcher in personalised learning project SRQ3. Exploratory personal surveys

Selection from long list of most important elements for personalised learning in secondary education

SRQ4.

Semi-structured interviews & personalised learning case

Conversion table for the most important educational elements in lean concepts

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1.2 Thesis outline

The remainder of this thesis consists of chapters two to six. The first three SRQs from the above research design are reported in chapter 2, in which the lean principles (and objectives) are derived from scientific literature and the most important elements for personalised learning in secondary education are selected. The next step forms the preparation for the interviews by means of interviewee selection and set-up of the interview protocol which are incorporated in chapter 3. Subsequently, after conducting the interviews, the results are reported in the similarly named chapter 4. Validated descriptions of the lean principles stated here are overarched by the actual conceptualisation in section 4.7. The roundtable provides room for discussion on topics that require some more attention from interaction between expert participants. The statements that are used to structure and facilitate these discussions and accompanied reactions are stated in chapter 5. Chapter 6 finalises the thesis research by means of a concluding reflection on the goals, directions for further research and recommendations to educational institutions to start working on personalised learning from today on.

2 Theoretical background

2.1 Lean and secondary education

The application of lean manufacturing to secondary education might evoke thoughts of ‘producing’ pupils and educational institutions being transformed into knowledge factories. However, as already stated in chapter 1, the application of lean thinking to public services has recently grown great popularity (Radnor & Osborne, 2013). On the other hand, modern factories are far from comparable to their predecessors in the industrial age. To gain insight in the present state of scientific research in multiple contexts, this section works towards a cross-context literature overview enabling the author to draw the conclusion what knowledge from lean is applicable to the context of personalised learning in secondary education. The goal is to observe tendencies in streams literature from several fields of application of lean. It is however far from the author’s intentions to provide a complete literature review, neither is this required to accomplish the research goals of this thesis.

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of lean principles and objectives. Moreover, the two far right columns indicate the present situation of the level of lean adoption, either lean thinking / culture or a tool-based approach. Therefore explicitly no lean tools are included under lean terminology.

The practises and objectives that have been investigated were adopted mostly from one of the earliest, original publications on lean manufacturing by Womack and Jones (1996). Moreover, these have also been adopted by Radnor and Osborne (2013) in their research on lean for public services. The lean terminology thus consists of the lean principles (and objectives):

(1) Strive for perfection (eliminate waste: ‘muda’); (2) Specify customer value;

(3) Map the value stream / chain;

(4) Create flow (eliminate variability / unevenness: ‘mura’); (5) Establish pull (production): ‘kanban’;

(6) Continuous improvement: ‘kaizen’.

The correctness of these lean practises and objectives is supported by the representation throughout literature, moreover the original terminology is aggregated with other terms when similar definitions applied.

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Table 2.1: Cross-context lean literature overview

Lean principles (and objectives)

References Contexts Lean adoption Stri ve for perf ection (elim inat e w aste : 'm uda' ) Spe cify cus tom er v alue Map t he v alue stre am / c hai n Cre ate f low (elim inat e var iabi lity / une venn ess: 'mur a') Establ ish pu ll (pr odu ction ): 'kan ban ' Con tinuou s im prov emen t: 'kai zen' Lean thin king / cul ture Tool -bas ed ap proac h References Contexts Manufacturing T radi ti on al

(Bhamu & Singh Sangwan, 2014) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Hopp & Spearman, 2004) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Jasti & Kodali, 2015) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Shah & Ward, 2003) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Representation 100% 50% 50% 100% 100% 100% 100% 0%

(Krings, Levine, & Wall, 2006) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Suarez Barraza, Smith, & Mi Dahlgaard-Park, 2009) ✔ ✔ ✔ (Kim, Spahlinger, Kin, & Billi, 2006) ✔ ✔ ✔

(Mazzocato, Savage, Brommels, Aronsson, & Thor, 2010) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Poksinska, 2010) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Radnor, Holweg, & Waring, 2012) ✔ ✔ ✔

(Balzer, 2010) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Emiliani, 2004) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

(Radnor & Bucci, 2011) ✔ ✔ ✔

(Waterbury, 2015) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Legal sector (Hines, Martins, & Beale, 2008) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Library services (Huber, 2011) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

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With the framework in place for the cross-context literature overview, literature is selected as unit of analysis with respect to the following literature selection criteria:

(1) Articles should have been published in a journal of good quality in the field of operations management.

(2) Articles and books should have been published recently (since the year 2000). (3) Articles and books should have a literature review or case study (or story) approach. (4) Articles and books should concern the application of lean specifically (e.g. not lean six

sigma, continuous improvement in general) in the specific context(s).

The following section elaborates on the findings from the cross-context literature overview shown in Table 2.1.

2.1.1 Original context

Here the point is to revert to the statement in the introduction of lean manufacturing becoming common knowledge. The high percentages in the representation row in Table 2.1 indeed indicate representation from medium to great extent of lean terminology among manufacturing literature. Especially the review articles (Bhamu & Singh Sangwan, 2014; Jasti & Kodali, 2015) provide a dozen of definitions of lean throughout many publications. Moreover, assessing the level of lean adoption true lean thinking or a true lean culture applies best to the current situation in the manufacturing context, as confirmed in the literature.

However, some articles also foresee problems operationalising lean manufacturing, because of misinterpretations of lean and its principles and objectives. The work of Hopp and Spearman (2004), for example, redefines pull and lean after the recognition of oversimplification of these terms in practitioners literature, leading to serious misunderstandings. Another development is expressed by Jasti and Kodali (2015) who suggest to focus on lean supply chain and lean enterprise in future research, where implementation of lean principles is not only restricted to manufacturing operations, but to ensure that these are rolled out beyond its their limits over the whole organisation and / or supply chain. Therefore, possibly a future state on the lean adoption continuum will read ‘lean supply chain’ or ‘lean enterprise’.

2.1.2 Public services

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context of manufacturing. This implies a lack of application, and even identification of a large part of lean terminology in these newer fields of application. Another difference becomes clear from the lean adoption part of the cross-context literature overview, which indicates a tool-based approach, i.e. the lack of true leanness by means of lean thinking or a lean culture. Considering the literature overview as a whole, little to medium representation of lean might be explained by the low level of lean adoption.

Radnor and Osborne (2013) refer to the metaphor of an iceberg introduced by Hines, Found, Griffiths and Harrison (2008) to illustrate two main interacting elements of the latter trend. “Below the water (and hence invisible) are the core enabling elements of strategy and alignment, leadership and behaviour and engagement. Above the waterline, and visible, are the technology, tools and techniques, and process management. The model indicates that lean can only succeed when the invisible strategic and value-based element are in place” (Radnor & Osborne, 2013, p. 272).

Based on similar findings in the field of lean service, the review of Suárez-Barraza, Smith, and Dahlgaard-Park (2012) thus concludes with certain possible trends or lines of research that might lead to a better understanding: (1) theoretical clarification of lean service, (2) application of lean service, and (3) new tendencies and extensions of lean service.

2.1.3 Lessons learned

Contrarily to earlier statement, some of the lean principles and objectives (i.e. ‘strive for perfection’, and ‘specify customer value’ were well represented throughout scientific literature about lean implementation in public services. This provides a first indication for the application of lean in secondary education as a starting point in their lean journey. However, sole adoption of tools for these purposes, also often referred to as the gap of “small scope and lack of strategic perspective” (Hines, Holweg, & Rich, 2004, p. 1,000) by critics of lean, should be prevented in this conceptualisation.

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Table 2.2: Propositions of a public services-dominant theory of lean, adopted from Radnor and Osborne (2013) No. Proposition

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A focus on internal efficiency is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the effective implementation of lean within public services. Rather, it has to be driven by addressing the issue of how to add value to the lives of the end-users of public services.

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The quality of internal processes is a key influencer of, and contributor to, the quality of external service and their reform only has meaning when this understanding is embedded in any internal reform process.

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Lean can only achieve its full impact when the end-user of public services both is seen as the true beneficiary of lean reform and is fully engaged in the process of lean reform and public services delivery.

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Lean can only succeed as a reform strategy for public services when it is seen as a holistic theory of service delivery that implies a cultural change for public service organisations to an externally, end-user driven culture, rather than its discrete implementation as a set of isolated technical exercises.

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Lean requires an understanding by professionals that the application of their professional knowledge can only achieve its full impact when this knowledge is shared with end-users and used to co-produce added value to their lives. This is a core element of the cultural change required for the effective implementation of lean within public services.

Further practical operationalisation of such a theory should be context specific, to be able to take contingencies into account. An example from healthcare, the context where lean is spread widest among the public services contexts, can be obtained from the National Health Service (NHS) case in the United Kingdom (NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2007) as referred to by (Radnor, Holweg, & Waring, 2012).

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comparison to the representation in literature from the manufacturing context. Hereby, enabling the emergence of true lean thinking or a true lean culture in the innovative, in terms of lean application, educational context.

2.2 Secondary education context

The General Education System Quality Analysis / Diagnosis Framework (GEQAF) (UNESCO, 2012) contains 15 analytical tools covering all key aspects of an education system. This framework defines three key-processes to achieve competencies and life-long learners, the desired objectives of an education system: (1) learning, (2) teaching, and (3) assessment.

Next, operational elements for personalised learning in secondary education are defined within the GEQAF key-processes. Because author’s own experience has been acquired in a traditional (secondary) education system, the first notion of elements is further specified with the help of a fellow researcher in the personalised learning project. Her expertise on mapping the personalised learning value stream on both micro as macro level ensures a complete representation of the system in terms of the important elements. Moreover, this specified list is then further validated by means of comparison to the building blocks of personalised learning included in the concept plan of the ‘Zo.Leer.Ik’-initiative (Zo.Leer.Ik!, 2014).

Table 2.3 shows the ultimately composed long list of elements for personalised learning in secondary education. These are classified on the GEQAF key-processes in the columns, some elements are allocated to multiple (two or three) processes.

Table 2.3: Elements for personalised learning and classification on GEQAF key-processes GEQAF key-processes

Learning Teaching Assessment

Elements for personalised learning in

secondary education

Daily kick off (base class)

Examination Parents

Personal development meeting (coach) Progress and achievements Pupil

Rooms Schedule

Self study and homework

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2.2.1 Educational elements selection

For the purpose of first conceptualisation, the most important elements of the long list presented above are selected based on the input obtained during the visit of secondary education institutions. Interviewees for this investigation are selected from a broad spectrum available at the visited secondary education institutions, covering management, operating, and supportive staff. The result of this selection is shown in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4: Interviewees for visit to secondary education institutions

Staff Function Organisation

Top management

Managing Director / Project Leader ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’

Openbare Scholengroep Vlaardingen Schiedam

Principal Het College VOS, Vlaardingen (NL)

Principal Het Lyceum VOS, Vlaardingen (NL)

Middle management

Department Manager (1) Het Lyceum VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Department Manager (2) Het Lyceum VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Department Manager (3) Het Lyceum VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Department Manager Picasso Lyceum, Zoetermeer (NL) Operating

staff

Teacher (1) Het College VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Teacher (2) Het College VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Teacher (3) Het College VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Teacher (4) Het College VOS, Vlaardingen (NL) Supporting

staff

Scheduler (1) Picasso Lyceum, Zoetermeer (NL) Scheduler (2) Picasso Lyceum, Zoetermeer (NL)

The results from the investigation by means of the top 5 forms are summarised in Table 2.5, that shows the overall ranking of the elements from the interviewees’ input. These ranks are calculated based on the average rank per element, assigning a score of 10 to all non-incorporated elements. Moreover, the standard deviation (column ‘St.dev.’) indicates the reliability of the averages of the gathered scores. The frequency each element is incorporated in a completed top 5 is incorporated in the far right two columns.

Furthermore, two unique and independent additions were made on the top 5 forms concern ‘electronic learning environment’ and ‘monitoring’; no consensus was reached on any additional elements.

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frequency. Besides, the credibility for this selection is supported by relative low standard deviation of these elements. Lastly, the above selection was validated with the project leader of the ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’-initiative.

Table 2.5: Rank and frequency prioritisation of personalised learning elements Personalised learning

elements

Overall rank

Average

rank St.dev. Frequency

Pupil 1 2.15 2.54 12  Personal development meeting (coach) 2 3.15 2.34 12  Teacher 3 4.92 2.56 11  Schedule 4 6.62 3.84 6  Teaching materials 5 6.77 3.19 7  Progress and achievements 6 7.08 3.40 6  Examination 7 8.15 2.91 4 

Daily kick off (base

class) 8 8.23 3.42 3 

Rooms 9 8.85 2.82 2 

Parents 10 9.08 2.29 2 

Self study and

homework 11 10.00 0.00 0 

With the results from parallel streams of investigation, i.e. the cross-context lean literature overview (Table 2.1) and the most important educational elements (Table 2.5), as a basis, model development of lean in secondary education is started. This aligns to the research goals for this thesis stating definition of key educational terms and most important stakeholders as a first step towards the conceptualisation of personalised learning in lean terminology; the lean principles from literature.

3 Interviews

The interviews have earlier been introduced methodologically in section 1.1. This chapter elaborates further on the preparation of the interviews and data gathering.

3.1 Criteria interviewees selection

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more strengthened by certifications of several interview partners lean six sigma belt certificates, indicated in the far right column of the table.

Table 3.1: Interviewees

Context Function Organisation Lean six sigma

belt level Industry : m anufacturi ng & di str ibut ion logi sti cs

Manager Customer &

Logistics Services CB Black Belt

Owner; Lecturer Operations Management and Master Trainer Lean; Principal Lecturer MBA programs and Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Cologic; Nyenrode Business University; NCOI Opleidingen

Branch Director; Lecturer Process Analysis DB Schenker Logistics Nederland; De Haagse Hogeschool Master Black Belt Lean Six Sigma Consultant /

Program Manager De Winter Logistics Green Belt

Manager Supply Chain De Winter Logistics Green Belt

Partner / Advisor House of Performance Green Belt

Director & Co-owner / Lean

Consultant LeanENT

Master Black Belt

CFO Lely Holding

Senior Supply Chain

Specialist Media Markt - Saturn Holding Yellow Belt Head Strategic Partnerships Philips Consumer Lifestyle

Lean & Operational

Excellence Manager Philips Consumer Lifestyle Manager Staff Process

Support PostNL Black Belt

Director Owner / Senior

Consultant ProduLog

Manager Lean Six Sigma

Office Royal Hoitsema Labels Black Belt

Head of Production

Engineering Scania Production Zwolle

Senior Project Manager UNC Plus Delta Master Black

Belt

CEO Zwanenberg Food Group

Gov

ernm

ent

Municipal Secretary /

Managing Director Gemeente Katwijk Corporate Advisor

Organizational and Operations

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Improvement

He

alt

hc

are

Lean Consultant & Interim

Project Manager IM-Power Black Belt

Manager Lean and

Healthcare Logistics St. Antonius Ziekenhuis

Clinical Microbiologist St. Elisabeth Ziekenhuis Tilburg Business Administration

Director Division Acute Care

VUmc Master Black

Belt

L

egal

se

ctor Lean Six Sigma Deployment

Officer Openbaar Ministerie Arrondissementsparket Noord-Nederland Black Belt L ibrar y se rv ice

s _{Staff Officer Library Affairs Biblionet Groningen}

Director Servicecentrum Flevolandse

Bibliotheken 3.2 Interview protocol

Confidence on reliability and validity of the interview data was gained by following an interview protocol while conducting the interviews, according to Yin (1994). The protocol was composed in such way that a semi-structured nature was facilitated, for example, by stating open questions. Additional value is expressed in the aid as timekeeper during the interviews for which the estimated duration is one hour.

The main structure of the interview protocol can be retrieved in Table 3.1, whereas the complete interview protocol (in Dutch) is incorporated in Appendix A. This final interview protocol is validated by conducting two test interviews. The detailed formation of the protocol is further elaborated below.

Table 3.1: Main structure of interview protocol

A. Opening

B. Background interviewee

C. Lean principles (and objectives) C.1. Experience

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The set-up of the main part (C) of the interview protocol is similar to the set-up of the theoretical background (top rows in Table 2.1), namely based on the lean principles (and objectives). In more detail, this part is subdivided in two: (C1) investigating the application of the lean principles in the interviewee’s organisation and context, and (C2) translation of the lean principles to the educational context describing the system of personalised learning. Thus, the representation of the principles is assessed and possible translation is identified first. This lays the foundation for the conceptualisation of lean in secondary education next. The ambitions of personalised learning are introduced in a case description, which is included in Appendix B. In both sub-sections one question is included on the level of lean adoption, respectively in their own working environment and their advice to education to embrace the lean philosophy or to keep it just instrumental.

Other parts of the interview consist of formalities such as:

A. Agreement on making recordings and an introduction to the research.

B. Introduction by interviewee on organisation, function and role in the field of lean.

D. Additions and possible improvements of the interview itself and invitation to the roundtable session.

Interview data is processed using transcription software to playback the recordings from the interviews and transcribe the outlines of relevant input for the conceptualisation in the same structure as the interview protocol.

4 Results

This results section provides the overarching findings from the interview transcriptions again in the structure of the lean principles (and objectives). Next, the conceptualisation is included by means of a conversion table, summarising the data from the interviews. Focus of the conceptualisation is put on the most important educational elements for personalised learning, as derived in section 2.2.1, namely: pupil, personal development meeting (coach), and teacher.

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the descriptions and composition of the conversion table are displayed in this chapter, as the validation from the roundtable session is applied retrospectively to this content.

When conceptualising lean in secondary education, the interviews showed a distinction between two categories of the lean principles (and objectives). ‘Strive for perfection’, ‘specify customer value’ and ‘continuous improvement’ are the continuous improvement principles, whereas ‘map the value stream / chain’, ‘create flow’, and ‘establish pull (production)’ are the design principles. The combination of all principles provides the concept within the scope of this thesis for the organisation of personalised learning in secondary education.

4.1 Strive for perfection (eliminate waste: ‘muda’)

For this principle, often a comparison was made between the traditional educational system and personalised learning by the interviewees. This showed personalised learning to be a solution for many of the wastes induced by the former system, referring to the original seven wastes from lean theory (Ohno, 1988):

(1) Waste of overproduction;

(2) Waste of time on hand (waiting); (3) Waste in transportation;

(4) Waste of processing itself;

(5) Waste of stock on hand (inventory); (6) Waste of movement;

(7) Waste of making defective products.

Personalised learning provides a continuous learning process with no repetition and no fixed planning that applies to all pupils; the right product on the right time in the right amount. Some interviewees however made a remark about possible conflicts between the needs of a pupil and the possibilities of the educational institution to fulfil these, resulting in waiting times from the pupils’ perspective. This is further investigated in the project of a fellow researcher by means of simulation (Hahn, 2016). Moreover, during the interviews the problem of pupils failing assessments is sometimes recognised as making defects. Failure is the result of an assessment system with grades, in which also other non-perfect score can be expressed. This topic is assimilated into a statement to be discussed during the roundtable (see section 5.2).

“The strive for perfection is the ambition to solve the customer’s problem and make him / her happier

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Secondly, perfection is measured in terms of delivering customer value. On a high level of abstraction this means to exploit pupils’ talents by supporting them to reach their final goal(s), either in the education or career field. Most interviewees then stressed the importance of coaching in determining these goals, because of the young age of pupils that inhibits them to formulate their needs (clearly) and bear the responsibility for this. By coaching the pupils’ input can be peeled off to discover their actual needs and solve the pupil’s problem(s).

Lastly, education was often related to necessary processes delivering only indirect customer value, such as administration. The lean principles (and objectives) can also provide guidance in the management of these activities.

4.2 Specify customer value

The customer value as described in the previous section will here be further elaborated, starting by the identification of the customer of personalised learning. Consensus was reached on the pupil being the primary customer, strongly influenced by the parents. Without pupils there would be no schools; pupils are the trigger for school to deliver their service. Additional higher-order customers were identified, such as higher education, employers, labour market, government, and society. The strict separation between customer and product was removed because in a service context customers participate in the production process. Moreover, the pupil is seen as a product in the design and optimisation of personalised learning. This view also holds for the governmental financing system for educational institutions based on (lead times and) graduation rates.

Customer demand thus equals pupil’s needs, which are specified to individual learning goals for each pupil. The task for the educational institution and more practically the teachers is to bridge the gap between the competences at the moment of intake and the learning goals. To determine the starting condition an assessment is conducted. This notion implies the product of personalised learning to be: optimising pupils’ learning and development process on knowledge and skills towards a diploma from professionalism and expertise. The market calls for flexibility so the school must ensure to deliver this; teachers will have to adapt to pupils.

“If my son is asked what he likes to do his answer would be ‘to play FIFA’, but when really talking to him he does know what career he

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By means of different meetings with the pupil the ‘voice of the pupil’ can be heard and the ‘unknown unknowns’ can be discovered. The intake meeting is important because of the assessment is important and feedback loops are incorporated by means of the personal development meetings (coach), as mentioned by the interviewees.

4.3 Map the value stream / chain

The next step when having the learning goals set is to divide these into building blocks which can be cascaded to the practical level. Often referred to as ‘strategy deployment’ via sub goals to modules with tasks. The modules are smallest measureable entity for the system of personalised learning as a whole. With these parts a learning path is composed representing the value stream / chain

map for the complete learning process or a certain smaller period (e.g. blocks of six to eight weeks).

The composition of a learning path depends on the choices a pupil makes. However, there is explicitly no unlimited flexibility; personalised learning lies in the context of the traditional educational system (so no private / one-to-one education). Therefore, a baseline level has to be determined (e.g. traditional diplomas within the current governmental education set-up) with choices for the pupil as an addition. To support the pupils in decision-making a menu should be offered in which the possible choices are mentioned.

In the production setting this is organised by linking product families to a certain process. For education these families can be put together based on specifications such as type of pupil or course. This will help to define stable processes for each educational family to reach the baseline level. Standardisation of these processes offers the possibility to perform quality checks during coaching, which is further elaborated in sections 4.4 and 4.6. On the other hand, the balance between this standardisation and the ambition to exploit pupils’ talents is sought in the discussion on an accompanying statement in section 5.3.

“Lean has proven its value in our hospital by the organisation of

processes on a department transcending level; the establishment of clinical pathways.”

“Learning to play a music instrument starts with reading musical notes and rhythm, with this

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Again the feedback loops (personal development meetings) play an important role in re-mapping the value stream from final goals via sub goals to the modules level.

4.4 Create flow (eliminate variability / unevenness: ‘mura’)

To eliminate variability, individual pupils’ needs should be aggregated into a cumulative demand for modules. This will show the modules that cover the majority of the total demand: the previously introduced baseline level. Together with the additional choices, education can be organised likewise a multi-mixed line: every type is produced on a single production line with braches to produce the specials.

Moreover, standardisation provides room to produce specials. The interviews showed many examples of standardised processes by which different variants could be produced. The interfaces of modules are crucial in such a system. Standardisation in personalised learning can take place on two levels:

(1) Organisation process standardisation; e.g. modularity, consultation structure, structure for intake and personal development meetings (coach), feedback processing, and course enrolment and planning procedures;

(2) Learning process standardisation; e.g. specification system for modules: tact time (supply characteristics), layout (resources such as rooms and ICT), and didactics).

An implication of the latter level of standardisation again leads to a discussion topic, namely the wish of schools to enable pupils to alter their learning tempo but the need to keep up with the tact time, which is reflected in the report of the roundtable in section 5.4.

In order to manage the bottlenecks in the previously proposed standardised system and thus persevere flow, assuring service level agreements and tact times, levelling can be used in two ways:

(1) Capacity agility: clustering pupils’ demand at multi-skilled teachers, and distinction between buffer tasks and non-buffer tasks;

(2) Activating pupils’ demand; e.g. ask questions early instead of close to the deadline. “Our employees are trained

following the three-by-three principle in our competences matrix: everybody can perform at

least three tasks, and every competence is covered by at least

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ICT functions as an important enabler by monitoring all the individual pupils’ flows; logging the progress through the standardised modules in a workflow system (electronic learning portal / pupil tracking system). Such a lean tailored quality management system is also further investigated in the project of a fellow researcher (Vermeulen, 2016).

4.5 Establish pull (production)

Personalised learning has to become a learning system itself. A system with such properties makes use of data analysis, as emphasised in the interviews. In personalised learning analysis of pupils’ behaviour in decision-making plays a vital role, referring to the work of a fellow researcher in this project (Spronk, 2016). This results in forecasts

of the demand for modules to trigger upstream process steps: buffer replenishment (for education mainly capacity and time, inventory to a smaller extent in terms of modules in an electronic portal), based on future withdrawal: the establishment of pull production. Six sigma tools were often mentioned to be helpful with this.

There are different time scopes of forecasts, ranging from long-term to short-term: (1) making assumptions, (2) projecting the actual situation, and (3) reacting. The more valid each larger time scope forecast is, the less emphasis the next level requires. Questions arise during the interviews whether forecasting is part of pull production, because it seems to be more in the grey area between a push and pull approach. Related to this: what is the ability of lean to handle uncertainty and changes in customers’ demand? This forms the motivation for the fourth statement of the roundtable session (see section 5.5).

4.6 Continuous improvement

Interviewees made a clear distinction between two pathways towards continuous improvement: (1) improving according to a standard, and (2) improving the standard. Both apply to the context of lean in secondary education. The consultation structure provides the input for continuous improvement actions. Intake meetings are used to set a first standard on an aggregated level (multiple

“Our strength lies within the combination of lean as change agent and six sigma as a prognosis for the pressure on our processes.”

“The system of personalised learning directly appeals directly on the lean principle of continuous

improvement by consultation of pupils for the first time during

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pupils), next in every personal development meeting the individual pupil’s progress is reflected upon this standard. This system was often referred to in the interviews as ‘lean operational management’ with short-cyclic / continuous adjustment of value stream / chain. Moreover, the actual improvement process is hereby defined.

Cautiousness however is required to prevent the system from cannibalism by over-consulting the pupil. Section 5.6 describes the degree of pupil involvement based on input during the roundtable discussion; the voice of the customer influencing the school’s organisation.

Apart from the external input (from pupils), lean operational management also focuses on internal improvements. In the secondary education context this means improvements inside departments and course sections, but also across these entities. This forms a connection with the work of the foundation ‘Stichting LeerKRACHT’ (Stichting LeerKRACHT, 2016).

Lastly, visual management has promises for personalised learning, according to several interviewees. Possibilities lie in the field of progress tracking (e.g. visually designed electronic portal or logbooks) and improvement boards (especially for internal improvement use inside departments and / or course sections).

4.7 Conceptualisation

Above sections are now summarised into the conceptualisation of lean in secondary education by means of a conversion table; Table 4.1, embodying the main goal for this thesis research, i.e. the description of the personalised learning educational system by means of lean terminology including the aforementioned key elements and stakeholders.

Table 4.1: Conceptualisation of lean in secondary education Strive for perfection (eliminate waste: ‘muda’)

 Continuous learning process and progress for pupil.  Deliver customer value.

Specify customer value: customer = pupil  Learning goals.

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Map the value stream / chain  Modular learning path.

 Support pupil decision-making with a menu of choices.  Identify educational families and link to process.

Create flow (eliminate variability / unevenness: ‘mura’)

 Aggregate individual pupils’ needs into cumulative demand for modules.  Standardise the organisation process and learning process.

 Use levelling by capacity agility and activating pupils’ demand.

Establish pull (production)

 Triggers for upstream process steps: buffer replenishment (capacity and time).

 Forecast demand for standardisation and ‘specials’ with different time scopes by means of data-analysis.

Continuous improvement

 External (pupil) and internal (teachers (cross) departments / sections) consultation structure.

 Make use of visual management for progress tracking and improvements. 4.7.1 Additions

Apart from the lean principles, interviewees were asked about the level of lean adoption and further additions to the conceptualisation. The results from this part of the interviews are presented below. Only findings that appeared multiple times (> 5) across the 25 interviews are incorporated.

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Secondly, notions on the supporting lean principle ‘respect for people’ were introduced by many of the interviewees, where people refers to both pupils and teachers. The first group needs extensive support in dealing with the responsibilities from the ownership of their learning process. Moreover, very different competences are required in executing the role of coach for the latter group. Whereas in teaching the person acts like a professional, in coaching process thinking skills have to be exploited. Ownership also applies to teachers who carry the responsibility to design and optimise their teaching process. A shift in workforce may be necessary to organise personalised learning towards more educational support staff who facilitate the learning process.

The implementation of lean in secondary education also yielded many tips:

(1) Be aware of pearls: things already occurring in the organisation that really align with lean.

(2) Make it practical.

(3) Establish pull by pull; let the need for lean sprout from the workforce searching for solutions to their problems.

Lastly, the findings from the interviews provided some general steps for an implementation plan:

(1) Create a vision by means of a compelling goal. (2) Make a benchmark with an organisation in a

different context than education (e.g. healthcare).

(3) Start with experiments on small scale (e.g. one aspect of personalised learning for a small group; start coaching to discover pupils’ needs).

(4) Define standards for modules. “Ask teachers how they see possibilities to perform their work in

a smarter way.”

“An example of a compelling goal could be: how to make our pupils

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5 Discussion

With the conceptualisation in the previous chapter set and validated by several lean and educational experts during the roundtable conversation. This chapter is devoted to the further discussion from this session guided by statements.

5.1 Roundtable

As already argued in section 1.1, a roundtable facilitates direct interaction between participants. Apart from validating purposes by bringing geographically dispersed people together on one location, also discrepancies from the personal interviews could be brought up for further discussion. Participants consist of a selection based on availability from the lean expert interviewees in Table 3.1 and stakeholders of ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’ with an educational background as an addition. The complete overview of functions and organisations of roundtable participants is provided in Table 5.1. The far right column indicates whether a participant was invited after an interview or was added as participant for the roundtable session only.

Table 5.1: Participants of the roundtable discussion session

Function Organisation Participation

Owner; Lecturer Operations Management and Master Trainer Lean; Principal Lecturer MBA programs and Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Cologic; Nyenrode Business University; NCOI Opleidingen

Interview + roundtable Lean Six Sigma Consultant / Program

Manager De Winter Logistics

Interview + roundtable Municipal Secretary / Managing

Director Gemeente Katwijk

Interview + roundtable Project Manager Continuous

Improvement Gemeente Zoetermeer

Interview + roundtable

Principal Picasso Lyceum

Mirroring interview + roundtable

Manager Staff Process Support PostNL Interview +

roundtable

Director Owner / Senior Consultant ProduLog Interview +

roundtable Managing director / project leader

‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’

Openbare Scholengroep Vlaardingen

Schiedam Roundtable

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Strategic Advisor Innovation Stichting Kennsinet Roundtable

Strategic Advisor Stichting Kennsinet Roundtable

Associate Professor Operations / Researcher

University of Groningen, Faculty of

Economics & Business Roundtable Associate Professor Technology

Management; Interim Manager / Management Consultant

University of Groningen, Faculty of

Economics & Business Roundtable

CEO Zwanenberg Food Group Interview +

roundtable The program of the roundtable session is composed of two main blocks with a duration of one hour each, dedicated to the discussions. Statements are prepared to trigger and / or structure these discussions aiming to gain more insight in sensitive topics that were revealed during the interviews and specifically no consensus was reached upon. Moreover, an additional and independent chair is appointed with experience from similar sessions and the author functions as a facilitator of the discussion by providing and introducing the content by means of short presentations of the (by then preliminary) results from the interviews. Next sections list the statements after shortly highlighting the origin of these, whereupon the answers to the questions stemming from the statements are displayed.

5.2 Grades

When the lean principle ‘strive for perfection’ was discussed during one of the interviews a culture of mediocrity (Dutch: ‘zesjescultuur’) was cited, based on the example goal in the case description (see Appendix B); to what extent does a grade of seven on a scale of ten correlate with the strive to perfection? Moreover, questions rise on assessment systems in personalised learning, for example, the assessment of skills instead of or as an addition to content assessment. Therefore, the following statement was introduced during the roundtable:

I. There is no correlation between strive for perfection and the assessment system with grades.

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on content mastering level is considered as a single dimension assessment. Moreover, personalisation of grades is very sensitive unless clarity is provided about differentiation on specifications of pupils, for example, for the labour market. Adaptive, digital assessments may be a suitable tool to personalise the norm upon which pupil’s performance is reflected, that is currently in development.

5.3 Unique pupils

Standardisation is introduced for the first time in the conceptualisation at lean principle ‘map the value stream / chain’. Here, often the cutting edge between standardisation and customisation came across for both the context of the interviewee and the context of personalised learning. There is a kind of fear of such terms from the production setting to be applicable to a social, service context. This led to the statement:

II. Standardisation is impossible because every pupil is unique.

The uniqueness was put to question right away with a view to organisational aspects; all lean experts recognised the complementary role of standardisation by which capacity arises to handle ‘specials’. Once again like in section 4.3, definition of the smallest measurable entity was emphasised to be important to manage a system: modules for this educational system. Moreover, what extent of personalisation is accepted by society in terms of the accompanied costs at which such a system is operated. Such questions highlight the social, financial, and ethical aspects involved in the design of personalised learning.

5.4 Learning process pace

The apparent contradiction between the core of the creation of flow (i.e. working with a tact time) and one of the core principles of personalised learning (i.e. pupils working at their own pace) was translated to the third statement:

III. Increasing and decreasing pace of the learning process is undesirable because of working with a tact time.

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blocks of six to eight weeks. The combination of system and subsystem-level tact times can then be translated into a coarse schedule with possible choices in learning pathways.

5.5 Forecasting and pull

The establishment of pull production was several times related to forecasting, data analysis and six sigma in multiple interviews. Literature shows little understanding around the principle of pull production (Hopp & Spearman, 2004). Practitioners’ vision from their experience with lean was discussed based on the statement:

IV. Forecasting customer demand is not a pull approach.

At this point comments in the discussion and scientific literature completely supported each other on the falsity of the statement. This is best summarised in the article of Hopp and Spearman (2004): “Although the practitioner literature has commonly defined pull to be make-to-order, this only applies at the strategic level. At the tactical level, the systems actually used to implement pull can be make-to-stock, or even make-to-forecast” (Hopp & Spearman, 2004, p. 142). Participants on the other hand praise the potential value of data analysis in the organisation of the personalised learning educational system. The need for capacity adjustments on the daily level becomes apparent and predictable, and quantitative evidence for long-term repositioning of the school’s capacity is provided.

5.6 Voice of the pupil

Finally, with the complete conceptualisation presented, the need for a turnover of the system required to be able to operate according to personalised learning was made clear: everything should be re-organised around the pupil. However, educational institutions will question where the continuous consultation of pupils (voice of the pupil, also see section 4.2) ends, and what their tasks and responsibilities are. These questions formed the input for the closing statement of the roundtable:

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supply and demand also on a higher level of abstraction: for an up-to-date educational system, regular checks of the real customers’ problems (irritators) have to take place to be able to deliver customer value. Moreover, capacity should only be structurally changed when there are structural discrepancies. Also in line with this: what proportion of pupils would like to ‘personalise’ their learning process by following the traditional route?

5.7 Concluding roundtable remarks

Looking back at the roundtable discussion session, it can be concluded to have been of great value to the quality of this research. All the attendants took part in the discussions on the statements, working towards a workable system of personalised learning. The conceptualisation has gone through the validation process and discrepancies from the interview were resolved. There was an atmosphere of helpfulness and mutual interest to develop Dutch education among the participants. They emphasised the important role of educational institutions to deliver well prepared potential employees to the labour market, the source for the participating (top) management to recruit talent for their own organisation. Hereby, they can catch up and maybe even become a key player in technological developments like robotics. This however requires a supply chain approach, in which all educational layers (primary education, secondary education, and higher education) and labour market parties are involved, to clarity specifications of diplomas in a modular educational system. Moreover, because of governmental regulations for education, government will be an important stakeholder as well in those discussions.

6 Conclusions and recommendations

The theory of lean manufacturing shows to have many touching points with personalised learning throughout this thesis research. Specifically, the ambition of the educational institutions within the ‘Zo.Leer.Ik!’-initiative to exploit pupils’ talents aligns with the leading role of the customer in other fields of application of lean. Perceptions of schools as ‘learning factories’ are overcome with the translation of Toyota’s lean principles to deal with context-specific contingencies and compose an education tailored conceptualisation of lean.

(Sub-)research questions and goals as derived in chapter 1 go hand in hand with the concrete results from the investigation, which can be summarised as follows:

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Literature search moreover shows a lack of representation of this lean terminology especially in the new context of lean application, whereas this representation is identified as an important enabler of sustainable improvement by means of a lean culture.

(2) Key educational terms and the most important stakeholders of the personalised learning educational system are identified in Table 2.5, namely: the pupil, personal development meeting (coach), and teacher.

These parallel research activities facilitate passage to the next research phase, namely model development.

(3) In the actual conceptualisation the lean principles are defined for the educational context of personalised learning. To this end, first we provide an elaboration overarching the input from the 25 cross-context interviews which subsequently is summarised in tabular form (Table 4.1). We have validated its content during the roundtable discussion session, in which we have brought participants together facilitating interaction (chapter 5).

The conversion table (Table 4.1) operationalises Radnor and Osborne’s (2013) public services-dominant theory of lean for education and states the guidelines for a lean organisation of personalised learning in secondary education.

(4) Another take away from the roundtable consists of consensus on statements that reflected discrepancies from the interview, hereby sharpening the concept of lean in secondary education, as reported in sections 5.2 to 5.6.

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With the conceptualisation, the applicability of lean theory to the new context of secondary education is proven. Interviewees’ and roundtable participants’ input during the different sessions forms the accompanied evidence, whereas the conceptualisation itself is validated and consensus is reach on statements around discrepancies from interviews.

6.1 Further research

The research also sheds a light on opportunities for next steps to design the Dutch education system to enable the ambition of personalised learning. Emphasis is put on the sensitivity around disrupting the learning situation of vulnerable pupils, especially those on a lower level of education and with special needs.

Short-term future research should focus on the development of a system of standards for learning process standardisation. Similarly to a production setting, such a system consists of different layers indicating the best working method, and working instructions indicating a variant’s specifications (e.g., the required components and tools). Identification of families for which standards should be developed, incorporated in the conceptualisation, is closely related to this topic. This elaboration on standardisation provides educational institutions with a workaround on an even more operational level for daily use.

Because of the limited scope of this project conceptualising lean only for secondary educational institutions, the utopian dream of a completely personalised human resource system often came across. In such a system competences and qualifications from personalised learning are understood. Employers, for example, formulate their job requirements in terms of talents rather than a diploma level. This requires further research in supply chain management to link all stages of education to each other and involvement of the labour market.

6.2 Recommendations to the field

Conceptualising Lean in Secondary Education: