How do I apply lean management in the office?
Lean management is primarily associated with manufacturing facilities. Thanks to lean tools, we improve processes, improve production, reduce the preparation time of the final product.
The whole philosophy of lean management, and then most of the tools used in lean management, stems from the need to improve the production of goods – m.in. cars. Kaizen principles, which are a key element in improving production, require, for example, the preparation of the workplace so that each work tool has a permanent, assigned place, most convenient for the sake of work efficiency.
It is easy to imagine an employee using tape that reaches for a handy key to screw the screws on hand, but it is more difficult to think of an office worker who always stores a pen in the same carefully selected place. And yet – and one, and the other does work that can be done worse or better, slower or faster, more or less efficiently.
Perhaps one of the most difficult steps in introducing lean principles into office work is the first step in mapping „production” processes. The idea is to look at the tasks performed by individuals as if they were looking at a chain of services provided, which are ultimately intended to provide the customer with value – a product or service.
Creating and delivering a product or service to a customer requires multiple related activities, activities, and operations. In lean terminology, they are referred to as valuestreams. It covers both the processing of materials and information. Adopting a value stream perspective means that all activities in the stream must be analyzed from the moment the order is placed until the product (service) is delivered to the final customer. Actions that do not add values must be eliminated.
What is the contribution of individual employees to the overall value delivery process? What are the stages of work performed by each person employed? These are questions to start with. Later, however, it is necessary to start diagnosing what can be improved, changed and perhaps even abandoned in individual steps (if this proves, for example, only unnecessary bureaucracy). It is also important to improve the processes between people – e.g. the transmission of information or the circulation of documents. This is so complicated that the flow of time and information is more difficult to „see” than the transfer of components between the halls in the production plant.
However, if the company succeeds in implementing lean principles in departments based on mental work, then the benefits will be similar to those of manufacturing processes:
- shorter processes,
- simplification of procedures,
- shortening and speeding up the circulation of documents and information,
- eliminate wasting time, tools and materials.
The most important goal of lean philosophy is to eliminate any irregularities that affect the flow of information and materials in the company. The result of this irregularity is excessive workload. This, in turn, causes waste.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.
