| p>Higher customer expectations, cost cutting | | | | organizations you collect very limited data on your |
| pressures, thinner margins and shorter lead times are | | | | administrative processes. Office Lean is not unlike |
| challenges your organization faces on a daily basis. A | | | | manufacturing Lean-it is based on data driven decision |
| management system built around Lean is not only an | | | | making. For office and administrative processes |
| enabler of achieving operational excellence but also | | | | determining what data to include depends on the |
| provides flexibility in the way your processes are | | | | questions you want to answer about your value |
| managed. What you need are robust, waste free, | | | | stream and how you define the product/service |
| flexible office processes that meet customer needs | | | | produced by these processes. For example, if your |
| and enable you to survive in the global marketplace. | | | | objective is to reduce the number of engineering |
| Consider that 60 to 80 percent of all costs related to | | | | change orders (ECNs). It would be helpful to define |
| meeting customer demand are administrative or | | | | ECNs as the product and identify the total number of |
| office related functions then it doesn't take rocket | | | | ECNs issued, cycle time and queue time for |
| science to conclude that applying Lean to streamline | | | | processing, and total cycle time. From this information |
| and eliminate waste from your office and | | | | you can determine where constraints most likely |
| administrative processes will result in bottom line | | | | occur and eliminates areas of waste in your "future |
| savings. | | | | state" process. |
| The Benefits of a Lean Office | | | | Examples of Lean Office Applications |
| A lean office management system can impact | | | | A client's value stream map indicated that out of a |
| administrative processes at all levels of your | | | | total lead time of 22 weeks only 1 week was spent |
| organization: | | | | doing true value-added work. This steel fabricator |
| Enterprise Level Processes- the processes that touch | | | | found that a large part of the non-value-added lead |
| your external customers and suppliers-order entry, | | | | time was identified as "waiting for approval". |
| customer service, accounts payable, accounts | | | | Approvals were built into many stages of the order |
| receivables, marketing/sales, research and | | | | fulfillment process but were the responsibility of |
| development, product development and distribution. | | | | management staff that was often unavailable. The |
| Lean can streamline and speed up these processes. | | | | client standardized the work procedures to eliminate |
| Organizational Level Processes-the key support | | | | the need for many of the approvals and reduced |
| processes in your organization-Information | | | | their lead time by 2 weeks. |
| Technology, Human Resources, Engineering, and | | | | In reviewing the order entry process for a client we |
| Purchasing. Lean will streamline these processes and | | | | found that a significant amount of time was used to |
| improve process efficiency. | | | | acknowledge the order. Whenever an order was |
| Departmental Level Activities-lean reduces activities | | | | entered, an acknowledgement was automatically |
| that add time but little or no value. It can help create | | | | printed and then manually sorted and mailed to each |
| flow at the pull of the customer, reduce hand-offs | | | | customer. The first question we asked was: "Who |
| and improve departmental quality. | | | | really wants these acknowledgements?" It turned out |
| Individual Level Tasks-Lean can reduce the | | | | that only a few of their customers wanted an |
| paperwork, manual entries and errors standardize | | | | acknowledgement, and those that did said an e-mail |
| work procedures, help improve workplace | | | | response would be sufficient The client changed their |
| organization, and clarify individual roles and | | | | order processing system to code any customer |
| responsibilities. | | | | seeking an acknowledgement, then automatically |
| Getting Started | | | | acknowledging these customers via e-mail at the end |
| Before applying Lean tools to the office environment | | | | of the order entry process. This resulted in freeing |
| we must understand the flow of work. Just as we | | | | up an overworked office staff to allow them to |
| map the value stream and focus on reducing lead | | | | spend more time on value-added activities. |
| time and eliminating waste in manufacturing we must | | | | A loudspeaker manufacturer discovered that much of |
| map administrative processes to better understand | | | | its lead time was attributed to delays in obtaining |
| them and eliminate waste. | | | | customer approvals during the design and prototype |
| Processes like order entry, quoting, planning, | | | | cycle. There was no effective means of managing |
| purchasing, product development and others are full | | | | the customer approval process. It seemed that once |
| of waste. As a matter of fact, 75-90% of the steps | | | | the information was given to the customer, it |
| in service/administrative processes add no value-the | | | | disappeared into a "Black Hole". We suggested to the |
| lean definition of waste. These wasteful steps cause | | | | client that they develop a visual management system |
| delays and customer dissatisfaction. Since one of the | | | | (a centrally located schedule board) that shows the |
| key principles of lean thinking is to minimize the time | | | | status of every job in house. This provided visibility |
| between the receipt of a customer order and | | | | for every step of the process and reduced lead-time |
| fulfillment of that order, we must look at the entire | | | | in the design and prototype process by 50 percent. |
| lead time. In order to see the waste in these | | | | As you can see by these examples Lean solutions |
| processes we must map them. After we identify the | | | | are surprisingly simple and do not require great |
| waste (non-value-added steps) and what needs to | | | | expenditure of capital. |
| be worked on, then we can apply the traditional Lean | | | | Lean is a proven, systematic approach for eliminating |
| tools such as pull systems, continuous flow, | | | | minimizing waste that results in the production of |
| co-location, point of use storage, continuous flow, 5S, | | | | goods or services at the lowest possible cost. It |
| visual controls and mistake proofing. | | | | goes beyond the shop floor. Lean is every system, |
| Secondly, you must collect data. If you are like most | | | | every process and every employee in the company. |