Lean Office Approach for Continuous Improvement Identification in the Admission Process of University Students

Smart campuses introduce teaching technologies in modern higher education, employing Information and Communication Technologies, sensor networks, digitalization, and improvement process methodologies for better management of scholarly services. In this context, Lean principles are used for process improvement through muda elimination and continuous improvement analysis in office tasks, including scholar services tasks. This article presents an extension of the Lean Office approach for continuous improvement of the admission process of incoming students in a public university in Mexico. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Customers), Value stream Mapping, Theory of Constraints, and visual management system tools are applied to analyze and optimize the admission procedure after the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing average 18.37% the time delays in the admission form exchange subprocess.