Empirical analysis of existing lean service frameworks in a developing economy

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to do the reliability and validity analysis of existing frameworks in lean services through questionnaire survey. Furthermore, it explores the applicability of these frameworks in Indian service sector. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was floated to 423 lean/quality practitioners in four service sectors in India. The questionnaire has two parts where first part was for collecting the demographic information of respondents and the second part assesses the importance of initiatives identified by various scholars/consultants under different frameworks of lean services. The assessment was done on five-point Likert scale. Findings: The results indicate that majority of services have adopted lean/process improvement methodology for enhancing operational excellence/performance and customer satisfaction. The study finds that all frameworks display a high level of reliability. Only nine out of eighteen lean service frameworks have displayed unidimensionality with respect to the construct, Lean. No generalised framework for lean services is available. Some essential elements such as servicescapes and change management are not present in any framework. Most of the frameworks are sector specific; thus, there is requirement for a suitable lean service framework. Research limitations/implications: The data were collected only from four sectors in Indian service industry. Future researchers may test these frameworks for other service sectors and country. Originality/value: This is the first paper empirically validating the lean service frameworks. The findings of the paper will be of value to lean service practitioners. It helps the quality professionals to recognise a suitable lean service framework to implement in their respective organisation.