|
This
Week’s Topic:
Lean in the Office - Setting the Stage
Some Operational Excellence zealots make the mistake of focusing their efforts solely on the production organization.
Since many improvement methodologies have a factory heritage, this is a very easy trap to fall into.
But ignoring the administrative side of the business means missing huge opportunities.
In fact, our experience is that Lean Six Sigma in the office often provides greater benefits than in the factory.
One reason is simple economics – in many companies overhead burden is a much larger percentage of total cost than direct manufacturing. Also, virtually all manufacturing companies have made at least some effort to improve production methods, even if significant opportunities still exist. At the same time, it is surprising to learn how many organizations have never applied structured improvement efforts in office settings.
In concept, attacking non-value added activity in administration should be the same as in production. However, in practice we find that additional communication and preparation are essential to success. For whatever the reason, even talk of reducing waste in administration is often terrifying to those affected. As a result, we always introduce the subject by stressing four important caveats:
- Defining a task as Non Value Added is NOT a reflection on the people doing the work. Employees only do NVA work because we ask them to and most people try to do their job as best they can. The focus must be on the task, not on blaming the people.
- Doing NVA work is sometimes better than the alternative. While improvement is always possible, many administrative functions will never be eliminated. For example, preparing monthly financial statements does not add value to the final customer. But for some bizarre reason most management staff believes it is a better alternative than going to prison. Go figure…
- Many NVA tasks exist because of a problem somewhere else. As a result, sometimes the most significant changes need to be made elsewhere in order to reduce the administrative load.
- Even the “Best of the Best” organizations still have massive amounts of NVA. Companies that grow by eliminating waste can provide great opportunities for their employees – even though specific work content and job assignments may change.
We will dig deeper into specifics of applying Operational Excellence technologies for administrative areas in future issues of Insights. But as a start, introducing these four concepts has proven to be a positive, non-threatening way to prepare the organization for eventual change.
Do you have any thoughts or experience with Operational Excellence in Administration? Please visit our blog to add your comments. To add your experience follow the link to Our Blog.
Interested in more ways to improve operations and
increase earnings at the same time? We invite you to
download our white paper “Targeted Lean Six
Sigma". You are also welcome to browse the
list of
free white papers and other articles at Free Resources.
If you have a topic that you
would like addressed, or an Insight you would like to pass
along, e-mail us at: Jack.Rink@rmdonovan.com
Browse our Operational Excellence
Insight Archives |