Ms Sarah Lethbridge
(she/her)

SFHEA

: Media commentator

Teams and roles for Sarah Lethbridge

Reader
Logistics And Operations Management

I am an expert in lean and continuous improvement, joining the School in 2005 as a Senior Researcher within the Lean Enterprise Research Centre. There I worked on numerous lean projects in hospitals, universities and public and private services. My lean work specialises in helping to develop the knowledge and self sufficiency of Continuous Improvement teams and I have worked with Nestlé, the Ministry of Justice's Lean Academy, their Shared Service Centre in Newport, the Value for Money team in the Home Office, Legal and General, Principality Building Society, Hugh James and most recently Thomas Carroll, to ensure that organisations approach lean in a holistic, sustainable way. I love working with organisations to help them to embrace Continuous Improvement and take pride in providing them with all of the knowledge and confidence they need to be self sufficient.

My research passion is to explore the interconnection of lean concepts and tools, helping people to understand how all of the lean ideas, support and inform each other and to also understand how Continuous Improvement continues to evolve. My most recent focus has been Service Design! See my blog, which I update regularly, to hear my latest thoughts. Sarah Lethbridge's Lean Blog - Cardiff University

You can find out more about my service design course here:

Service Design - YouTube

You can also watch me talk about how useful lean was in the pandemic below (start at 4 minutes):

Leaning into the Crisis

Date
Type

2025

Lethbridge, S. 2025. Encouraging and enabling serious academics to become ‘engaging’: the ‘executive education as a catalyst’ approach. In: Abdul-Rahman, S. et al., How to Scale Engagement and Impact in Universities. ElgarOnline. , pp.166-175. (10.4337/9781035337439.00020)

2019

Lethbridge, S. 2019. Cardiff University. A Lean university or a better university?. In: Yorkstone, S. ed. Global Lean for Higher Education: A Themed Anthology of Case Studies, Approaches and Tools. Abingdon: Routledge. , pp.329-342.

2018

Bateman, N. , Lethbridge, S. and Esain, A. 2018. Pillar or platform - a taxonomy for process improvement activities in public services. Public Money and Management 38 (1), pp.5-12. (10.1080/09540962.2018.1389487)

2013

Bateman, N. and Lethbridge, S. 2013. Managing operations and teams visually. In: Bell, E. , Warren, S. and Schoeder, J. E. eds. The Routledge companion to visual organization. Routledge Companions in Business, Management and Accounting London: Routledge. , pp.306-321.

2011

Esain, A. E. et al. 2011. The implications of maturity of improvement methodologies in UK public services: A pilot study. Presented at: 18th International Annual EurOMA Conference: Exploring Interfaces Cambridge, UK 3-6 July 2011.

2010

Esain, A. E. et al. 2010. Towards an evaluation framework to assess the impact of organisational learning interventions. Presented at: Proceedings of British Academy of Management Conference Sheffield, UK 14-16 September 2010.
Hamer, R. and Lethbridge, S. 2010. Seeing shared work within a system. In: Zokaei, A. K. , Seddon, J. and O'Donovan, B. eds. Systems Thinking: From Heresy to Practice: Public and Private Sector Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.67-83.

2008

Lethbridge, S. and Hines, P. A. 2008. New development: creating a Lean university. Public Money and Management 28 (1), pp.53-56. (10.1111/j.1467-9302.2008.00619.x)

2007

Hines, P. , Lethbridge, S. and O'Grady, L. C. 2007. Creating a lean university. Presented at: 12th International Symposium on Logistics (12th ISL) Budapest, Hungary 8-10 July 2007. Published in: Pawar, K. S. , Lalwani, C. S. and Muffatto, M. eds. Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL 2007): Developing Sustainable Collaborative Supply Chains, Budapest, Hungary, 8-10 July 2007. Nottingham, UK: Centre for Concurrent Enterprise, University of Nottingham Business School. , pp.38-43.
Lethbridge, S. , Bateman, N. and Francis, M. 2007. Visual management for an Academic Research Centre.. Presented at: British Academy of Management Conference 2007 Warwick, UK 11-13 September 2007.

Research Interests

Service Design
Visual Management and how it improves organisational effectiveness
The link between lean thinking and entrepreneurship
Translating manufacturing lean concepts into service contexts - adopt, adapt or create new ideas?
Interconnection of lean concepts
Understanding how lean programmes evolve and managing their evolution
Leadership and Lean

Strategic and Operational Decision Making
Expert Lean Programmes
Service Lean Programmes
Service Design
Systems Thinking
Continuous Improvement Methodologies
Introduction to Lean

Pro Dean of External Engagement

Developing key relationships with organisations to ensure that our research and teaching remains cutting edge and has impact

Academic Partner for Flexible Learning

Worked on an 18 month project to build a coalition, momentum and platform for Flexible Learning

Director of Executive Education and External Relations

Design and Development of bespoke executive education programmes for Hugh James, Acuity Law, Bisley, Companies House, Vietnamese Universities and many more
Creation of Breakfast Briefing series

Director of Executive Education

Design and development of bespoke executive education programmes for China Scholarship Council, ACMA India, Nestlé, Principality Building Society, PA Consulting, Rabobank, Target Loans, SERCO, Legal and General, Ministry of Justice, Home Office, Merseyside Police, Cardiff Council, Manchester City Council and more.