My research is conducted in the various fields of operations management such as quality management, lean production and service management. I seek to develop knowledge on how organisations can improve and manage their operations more efficiently to better serve their customers . I also teach at basic and advanced level in Lean production, quality management, Six Sigma, process management, statistical process control and change management.
Quality development in the public sector
The public sector organisations such as healthcare, social care and elderly care are challenged to improve their services while keeping costs down. There is, therefore, great interest to transfer approaches and methods that appeared to be successful in the private sector into the public sector. However, the knowledge about how to translate the approaches and make it work in the public service context is limited. This is where I come in with my research.
As a PhD student I studied the implementation and operation of the international standards ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 in the manufacturing sector. These standards focus on a quality respectively environmental management and intend to support organisations in developing, implementing and improving a management system to meet stakeholder requirements. Since 2008 my focus shifted towards service operations and I have carried out several research projects on improving public sector quality and performance.
Currently I am looking how Lean principles can be applied in the service environment and what consequences it may have for the service productivity in terms of internal efficiency and external effectiveness.
Previous research projects
Using vignettes for measuring quality in elderly care
The project aimed to develop, test and evaluate a survey methodology based on anchoring vignettes for measuring the quality in the elderly care. A central problem of the existing survey methodology is the interpersonal incomparability of survey responses due to differences in preferences and health conditions. The results have shown that anchoring vignettes reduce the impact that respondents' personal characteristics have on the survey results and thereby improve comparability, but the method has demonstrated several disadvantages that make it currently unsuitable for the use in elderly care.
The Lean Philosophy and Managerial Work in Healthcare: prerequisites, forms and processes
In this project we studied Lean leadership practices in organisations, which applied Lean production in a long term sustainable way. We developed knowledge on how to lead with focus on continuous improvement and employee growth.
Service Innovations in Health Care
The project aimed to develop knowledge about how patients can be involved in health care service innovations. The empirical work was carried out in three different health care units. Patients used diaries in order to collect ideas and problems which they identify during their health care episode.
European Framework for Lean Training in Healthcare Organisations
The project aimed to develop and provide an internationally accredited and recognised masters ‘Lean in HealthCare’ in a user based, on-line format for health care based institutions.
Publications
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