An Assessment of the Impact of Lean Interventions within the UK Police Service

Abstract

The police service in England and Wales continues to face intense pressures to manage and reduce budgets while simultaneously maintaining and improving levels of service. In achieving reform, attention has been directed towards the implementation of proven operational improvement frameworks, such as ‘lean thinking’ taken from the automotive industry. This research draws on contemporary views of ‘lean’ as a knowledge creation process that is integrated into an absorptive capacity theoretical perspective. The work provides a new perspective on operational improvement within police forces and new insight into how such a reconceptualization may contribute to more successful police transformation