What is LehighLean?
Lehigh University is committed to growing a culture that seeks continuous improvement. LehighLean thinking is about solving problems, improving processes, and optimizing the use of our resources. Through LehighLean, staff and faculty can streamline their day-to-day work activities and processes through front-line problem identification and hands-on problem solving.
LehighLean thinking will allow you and your department to:
- Deliver exceptional value to Lehigh stakeholders.
- Simplify as many processes as possible so your department can invest time in new strategic priorities that will put Lehigh on par with leading peers.
- Minimize the cost of doing business to make a Lehigh education more accessible and affordable.
- Make your work more enjoyable.
- Create a learning organization that develops skills and opportunities beyond the LehighLean journey.
- Support Lehigh’s 2030 Sustainability Strategic Plan by eliminating waste
LehighLean is designed to empower employees to actively participate in capturing and developing ideas and transforming that vision into a positive change for the Lehigh community.
Why does this matter to our students?
Our students are our customers. Lehigh must work to deliver added value to our students, going further than academic quality in order to excel. Lean enables us to be more efficient and offer services of higher quality while at the same time eliminating wastes that do not support the core activity of delivering value to our students.
Ensure vitality and sustainability by building a forward-looking, efficient, and caring culture that stimulates, recognizes, and rewards creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, and exemplary performance through the employment of Lean thinking.
- Improve structure, program, and projects that move Lehigh’s Strategic Plan forward
- Assist Lehigh departments with creating a culture of continuous improvement
- Introduce the lean strategy and tools to operations and assist with project execution
- Develop the internal capability for Lehigh to provide its own lean training and development program
- Develop leaders who can sustain a lean culture at Lehigh
- Productivity improvement (eliminate waste, reduce time, supply/demand match)
- Cost containment and reduction
- Improve customer satisfaction and quality of service
- Support sustainability initiatives
- Increase revenue (identify new opportunities)