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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a continuous improvement project (CIP) at a Mexican university designed to increase engineering graduate student loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A plan-do-check-act problem-solving methodology was implemented, and a SERVQUAL survey was conducted on 67 master's engineering students. Findings: Five factors were found to affect student loyalty: facility cleanliness; faculty teaching skills; evening student services; master's degree student management roles at work; and master's degree students' ages. After the implementation of the improvement and control actions, there was a 7.7% increase in the engineering master's degree students' loyalty scores. Research limitations/implications: However, there were several research limitations: data availability (such as student loyalty, student satisfaction and a small master's degree student population size) and factors outside the CIP's scope (such as the country's economic situation, university rankings, master's programme accreditations and COVID-19). Practical implications: The findings from this research study could be used by other higher education institutions (HEIs)to improve student loyalty and as a reference when conducting similar studies in other service organisations such as hospitals and hotels. Originality/value: This research work took a different approach in assessing student satisfaction and student loyalty in a HEI by using the SERVQUAL survey as the data collection instrument for conducting CIP.

Purpose: To redesign the spare parts (MRO) inventory management at Company XYZ's warehouse, considering the conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: To address this research project, the authors integrated three methodologies: action research, Lean Six Sigma (DMAIC) and Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining. These methodologies integrated the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) 4.0 framework applied in this project. Findings: The spare parts inventory value was reduced by 15%, and inventory turnover increased by 120% without negatively impacting the internal service level. Practical implications: Practitioners leading or participating in continuous improvement projects (CIPs) should consider data quality (data available and data trustworthiness), problem-solving approach and target area involvement to achieve CIP goals. Otherwise, the LSS 4.0 could fail or extend its duration by several weeks or months. Originality/value: This project shows the importance of controlling a target area before deciding to conduct a LSS 4.0 project. To address this problem, the LSS 4.0 team implemented 5S during the measure phase of the DMAIC. Also, this project offers significant practitioner and theoretical contributions to the body of knowledge about LSS 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]