Lean management in hospitality: Methods, applications and future directions

Abstract

The hospitality industry is under constant pressure to optimise internal processes, while at the same time extending services to the customer. The purpose of this study is to outline the potential of lean management as a successful approach to increase efficiency and productivity in operational processes in the hospitality industry. We demonstrate that the proven potential of lean methods in fields like manufacturing can be successfully transferred to the needs of the hospitality industry. As a result, the research shows a selection of lean methods which are particularly suitable for application in the hotel sector. This study is based on a real case study in order to test the practical application of lean methods in hospitality. Our research contributes to process optimisation in hospitality and can be directly implemented by practitioners. Further it provides future directions in the transformation of lean methods through digitisation.