Lean Office

Up to 75 percent of opportunities for eliminating waste can be found in areas other than manufacturing. Leading edge manufacturing companies have recognized the similarities between their manufacturing lines and their offices. Both settings have processes and people producing work output. Most importantly, both have processes--which, left unrefined, become wasteful.

Developing a Lean Office is a strategic business approach to improving the administrative functions associated with running a business by providing improvement solutions for overlooked administrative processes that have an impact on every system, process, employee, and customer.

 

DID YOU KNOW? Office activities account for 90% of quoted lead time - a metric most companies do not realize.


Transitioning to a Lean office environment requires eliminating non-value activities associated with the administrative process just as they are eliminated in the production process.

Administrative inefficiencies are more difficult to see than those in the manufacturing process. Advances in technology have benefited the office yet information flows often remain stagnant, causing unnecessary delays. Bottlenecks are not as obvious as they are on the shop floor and non-value-added activities that occur in the office can drain 95% of a company’s resources.

Ask yourself…

  • Are customers calling frequently asking when their orders will be ready for delivery?
  • Are you losing potential new sales due to a long quote process?
  • Does your order to production flow stop if someone is out of the office?
  • Are you missing on-time delivery? Or working overtime to meet delivery requirements?
  • Is order processing and billing negatively impacting your cash flow?
     

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it is time to start your lean office implementation.

Lean Office UT CIS

 

Process map of office function