Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss results from the first empirical study on the status and the success factors of Six Sigma in the financial services sector. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical study using a comprehensive and tested survey instrument has...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a scale for the measurement of proactive improvement, in general, and then more specifically in terms of cost‐ and service‐focused improvement in logistics outsourcing arrangements. Design/methodology/approach – Upon completing a review...

Purpose – Climatic conditions in Poland vary tremendously each year with temperatures exceeding 25°C in the summer and sub‐zero in the winter. Therefore the provision of adequate heating and cooling in residential, public and industrial buildings is essential. Poland has recently embarked...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative initiative carried out at the Mayo Institute focused on improving the well‐being of patients; details the problem solving methodology adopted and the four‐stage process undertaken. Design/methodology/approach – Prepared by...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the business processes of a bank by considering a graphical and a descriptive view in order to find critical processes and to improve them. Design/methodology/approach – A methodology with which the business processes are modeled...

Purpose – Recently, the operations management academic literature has seen articles focusing on the transfer of “lean” thinking or kaizen concept from the private to the public sector. In Spain, during the last 15 years, some local councils have also followed similar improvement...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the claims made for the clinical microsystems approach of healthcare improvement within an English NHS context. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted a Realistic Evaluation approach to examine a series of pilot clinical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a co‐authored reflection on the health improvement leadership development programme and the key evaluation messages derived from piloting in an English National Health Service region. It highlights the specific attributes of this approach to...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide researchers and practitioners with an overview of how organisation behaviour research (OBR) helps to understand and resolve patient safety problems in health care. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes psychological, sociological and other...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent service delivery in the Canadian federal government actually improved after a decade of reform efforts, and how employee empowerment accounted for any improvements that arose. Design/methodology/approach – Five focus group...