Lean public transportation : application of the Lean philosophy to public transportation systems. Budapest case of study

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (8464)

[EN] The following thesis attempts to develop a theoretical background for the application of Lean improvement philosophy to the processes and services inherent to any public transportation system as a way of increasing quality and reducing operating costs. To be able to adapt Lean to this new sector, an analysis of the structure of the public transportation was done; identifying stakeholders and other basic characteristics; it was found that Lean manufacturing and Lean services could be applied directly to the support process, on the other hand, a serious adaptation of concepts was needed to be able to apply Lean to the main production process of the public transportation (the movement of passengers). After studying the parallelism between manufacturing and transportation, the concept of ¿flow of passengers¿ was coined; it refers to the ability of the passengers (as products in a manufacturing line) to move easily and fast through the network. It is believed that increasing flow of passengers leads to an improvement in quality and passengers satisfaction. The application of these Lean Public Transportation theory and its benefits is reasoned by studying the strong and weak points of the Budapest transportation system, analysing the quality of its service using this approach and proposing solutions that are in consonance with the principles developed in the theory.