You’ve read the books, been to the classes, and have seen and heard what others have done with Lean in the office. Now you’re ready. You’ve looked at your organization with a new eye and now you’re literally tripping over all of the unnecessary waste and the opportunities to create greater customer value. It’s time to get started on a Lean office journey, but how/where do you take that crucial first step?
An organization new to Lean can behave as if they are entering a candy store for the first time. Each bin holds another enticing opportunity for happier customers, more satisfied employees, and greater profits. It can almost be too distracting. Take on too much at once and suffer from overindulgence. Choose one at a time and loose patience with the slow progress. Believe it’s there just waiting for the taking and become frustrated by getting nothing.
Getting started with Lean means not only knowing what to do, but how to do it. The best way to go about Lean depends on different cultural and operational factors of an organization. Occurring with too much variation to describe here. But once these factors are identified, the options for taking that first step on a Lean office journey are described below:
- Bottom-up vs. Top-down
- A bottom-up approach is a grass-root effort that engages employees to identify and reduce wastes. This “empowerment” takes little management overhead. Train employees, identify waste, and turn them loose on reducing it.
- Top-down is a strategic approach to Lean. System-wide current and future state maps are created and performance improvement initiatives are identified and prioritized.
- Projects vs. Workshops
- Most organizations are familiar with the traditional project management approach to executing an initiative. Note however that project management functions are non-value added. On their own they do not increase customer value.
- An alternative is to reduce project management overhead using an Agile workshop approach. All workshop events for an initiative are time-boxed. This means that their number, duration, and schedule are fixed. Then workshop teams are created and they determine the scope that can be successfully accomplished in the time-box. This approach can reduce the waste of project management overhead.
- Contiguous vs. Intervals
- Contiguous projects/workshops occur every day without interruption until finished. Kaizen workshops or permanently staffed projects are examples of contiguous initiative driven events. Contiguous events can accomplish objectives quickly but require dedicated resources. They also feel more like a sprint than a long distance race; when Lean’s highest rewards go to those in it for the long haul.
- Staging project/workshop events at planned intervals can be just as effective as contiguous. It’s important that not too much time elapses between intervals and that each event shows visible progress. A 5 day contiguous Kaizen workshop spread across two to three weeks can achieve the same results with less impact on customers; taking longer but often achieving greater benefits.
- One-and-done vs. Sustainable improvement
- Initiatives have a start and a finish. An organization can target an initiative at one point-of-pain and then feel the relief when it’s done. And then wait for the next point-of-pain to grow large enough to justify launching another initiative dart at it.
- A sustainable improvement approach recognizes there are endless improvement opportunities. Sustainable means continuous but at a pace the organization can sustain. It applies constant, gradual, and incremental improvements with each achieving meaningful results. Improvement initiatives are identified, prioritized, and executed to maximize customer value and avoid significant points-of-pains from developing.
- Internal Staff vs. Consultants
- Making performance improvements requires people. Not only the people to create them, but also to implement and accept the changes made. An organization must make investments in its people to improve processes.
- The return on Lean investment made by an organization may be accelerated through the use of outside consultants. Consultants can be the performance catalysts to launch and sustain a Lean office journey by acquiring their expertise, training, and momentum to keep things on track and rolling through both good times and bad.
During different times different paths may make the most sense in a Lean office journey. What may be appropriate for getting started may require an adjustment along the way. Knowing the various paths to Lean helps avoid picking the wrong one for your current situation. But regardless of which path you choose, its time to get started with Lean office.
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