Overview of Lean Administration

Lean Administration is threatening to eclipse Lean Manufacturing as a discussion topic these days. The need for elimination of waste in the office has finally come to the attention of managers in manufacturing and service organizations. The types of waste seen in offices are very similar to those addressed by Lean Manufacturing on the shop floor: 1. Overwork - consumes time and resources without adding value for customers. 2. Work in Process (WIP) - sitting in piles and files, not serving customers. 3. Data Transport - that does not bring information closer to customers. 4. Process Waste - cost and activity that consumes worker time and does not add appropriate value to the product. 5. Redundancy - redundant data bases and the work of maintaining them.. 6. Waiting - for information to be harnessed for customer satisfaction. 7. Misinformation - introduced into the information stream. Unfortunately, the Lean Manufacturing tools that industry has developed are difficult to apply in an office environment: 1. The office environment does not readily provide the product flow, product volume, and value data that are clearly evident in a manufacturing environment. In order to optimize workflow in the office, the Lean Administration team must begin with some steps that have already been taken in the factory: Workflows must be identified and documented. The value-adding component of each flow must be identified, including identification of the internal and external customers for whom the value is added. The cost, at least in general terms, must be identified for each flow. A cost/value balance should be developed, at least informally, to help determine which workflows should be automated, which should be streamlined, and which should be discarded or combined with other flows. All of this new data must be developed quickly and communicated clearly to the Lean Administration Teams in order to maintain team interest and momentum. 2. Lean Manufacturing analysis, which typically focuses on one product flow at a time, must be adapted to an office environment where a large number of invisible flows are simultaneously crisscrossing each desk in the work area. Multiple flows must be addressed simultaneously and the impact of these flows on each other and on the workers must be taken into account. These challenges usually derail Lean Office or Office Kaizen efforts. Even though the work output from Lean Administration projects looks deceptively like the output from Lean Manufacturing projects, the methodology is very different. Achieving success in Lean Administration requires a very different approach from Lean Manufacturing or shop floor Kaizen efforts. The Stanton Group has spent over ten years perfecting the methodologies and supporting software that deliver these results.

See also: Lean Administration Lean Administration Project Steps Lean Manufacturing Project Steps Lean Manufacturing Training

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