Lean Manufacturing

Organisational Leaders globally are being asked to achieve the same (or more) with less resources.

What happens when the resources available can’t meet
customer/client/patient demand and expectations?

The organization may consider:

• The existing staff doing more hours• Recruiting additional staff• Outsourcing work• Upgrading equipment i.e. computer software,phone system etc.These solutions have one thing in common – More Cost!

The goal of any business (unless it is not for profit) is to make money is it not?

To achieve this goal we need our operating expenses and investment in the business to be going down relative to our sales revenues.

How do we do this? Application of Lean Thinking Best Practices to all Service/Office processes regardless of the industry you operate in.

Examples of the processes we are talking about could include:

• Order entry
• Preparation of tenders/quotes
• Project planning/scheduling
• Health services – surgical, outpatients, examinations
• Processing of applications/claims
• Product development
• Procurement
• Engineering
• Logistics

What are the Best Practices that need to be embraced in a service/office environment? They are:

• Leading and Managing Change
• Teamwork
• 5S
• Visual Measures
• Problem Solving
• Process Time Reduction
• Process Flow
• Error Proofing
• Quality
• Waste Reduction

These Best Practices will challenge conventional thinking. They require the involvement of all and strong leadership

For example: A collegue was working with a client and the request was to make the call center more efficient. The response was “Shouldn’t we be working on why the call center is so busy” “Why do our clients need to ring us? Have we not provided information they require? Have we processed their request incorrectly?” What was incorrect? Why was it incorrect? etc

The original request was basically a form of firefighting would you agree? Lean Thinking says No More – let’s change from fire fighting to structured problem solving. Let’s understand the root cause and fix it so we no longer need to firefight the same issue (though it could look different each time) time and again.

There are several key concepts to Lean Thinking, namely:
1. Our Customers (internal and external) Define Value in the organisation. They want what they need (fit for purpose, right first time, acceptable price/quantity, flexibility etc) when they need it. If this is accepted, it should change the way we view our workplace.
Ask yourself: If I am the customer is the task I am working on of value? Would I be happy to pay for it? For example: A task has been completed and is incorrect so it has to be redone. Am I as the customer happy to pay for the time taken to do the rework? The answer would be NO wouldn’t it. To the customer Value means right first time so this is what the process must deliver.
2. We must make Value Flow in our organization. Think for a minute about how long it takes from receipt to completion of a task/process/project that you are part of. Now reflect on how much time someone is actually working on it? Usually the balance of the time is spent waiting in a queue, waiting for someone to be available, waiting for information. The concept of making all work flow again challenges conventional thinking. For example, we may need resources dedicated to act as “Runners” so that those that add value are not interrupted
3. The relentless pursuit of Eliminating Waste. In order to eliminate waste we first need to “see” it. Once we “see” the wastes in our organisation we have the opportunity to reduce or eliminate them. What type of waste? The wastes of

• Over-production
• Waiting
• Unnecessary handling
• Unnecessary processing
• Unnecessary motion
• Unnecessary work-in-progress
• Rework of defects/errors
• Lost Human Creativity