Lean In The Office - Setting the Stage
Posted on Tue, May 04, 2010
This week's Operational Excellence Insight focuses on four tips to prepare the organization for Lean in administrative areas.
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...
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