Office Lean

Struggling to apply Lean effectively in your office environment? Office Lean is a book for anyone who wants to apply Lean better in contexts where the work is both intangible and complex. it explains in simple terms, what Lean is -- and what Lean isn’t -- enabling office professionals to understand how it can be successfully applied to their complex office-based work environments. Contrary to popular opinion, Lean is not only for mass manufacturing or healthcare. It applies just as much to the digital world of "knowledge work" industries such as banking and financial services, software development, and government. But the fundamental concepts, straight from the factory floor, need a fair amount of translation to be effectively applied in cube farms. Overturning the common perception that Lean is about imposing rigid rules, or simply eliminating waste in the name of "efficiency", Eakin presents Lean as a dynamic, flexible, people-centric philosophy that delivers outstanding business results by improving employee engagement and customer experience. Office Lean helps Lean practitioners (leaders/managers and coaches/consultants) working in professional office environments access the amazing, transformative results Lean can bring to their specific domains. It combines clear explanations of the core concepts of the Lean philosophy with relevant, practical examples from the fields of accounting, finance, insurance, IT and government.

Winner of a 2012 Shingo Research and Professional Publication AwardDemystifying the application of Lean methods, Lean Office and Service Simplified: The Definitive How-To Guide goes beyond the basic tools to detail the key concepts of Lean as they apply to office and service environments. It begins by discussing value stream management, followed by

This book introduces the challenges to apply current methodologies to create a lean office. It describes the system enhancement options that lean practitioner can employ in automating the newly created lean processes and explains each of the seven steps necessary for creating a lean office.

Bring Lean Improvements to the Administrative Areas of Your Organization! Extending their eight-step process to the realization of a lean office, Tapping and Shuker use a customer service case studyto illustrate the effectiveness of the value stream storyboard.This popular volume provides organizations with a proven system for implementing lean principles in the office. In addition to providing a thorough overview of basic lean concepts, this book details methods for identifying the administrative activities in need of attention. To address these, it applies the eight-step process for removing waste and reorganizing workflow. Accompanying the book are downloadable resources containing a lean assessment tool, a storyboard template, charts, a team charter, and worksheets. Along with this book you receive downloadable resources containing a lean assessment tool, a storyboard template, useful charts, a team charter, forms, reports, and worksheets!

Service organizations and offices worldwide are beginning to realize that only those companies that are efficient and able to meet the changing needs of customers will survive the fierce competition of the marketplace. Adopting lean puts anyone in a position more likely to build an intimate relationship with customers and build a foundation of operational excellence. Lean as a philosophy is new to the service companies, and many of them struggle to find the correct approach for its adoption. Many declare early victory after a few successful projects only to realize that the benefits do not sustain over a period of time. This happens because they do not really know what it takes for a holistic lean implementation in a service organization.!--nl--Lean has the ability to address a wide range of problems faced by service companies, such as: complexity reduction, sales force productivity enhancement, operations risk control, cost leadership, combining scale with flexibility, service excellence and improving employee morale & involvement. Many of the principles discussed in the book are based on the author’s first-hand experience in lean implementation. Being from a practitioner’s viewpoint, Lean for Service Organizations and Offices is light on theory and heavy on application, exactly what’s needed for a holistic and comprehensive lean transformation. Read an interview with the author in The Hindu.

The Highly Effective Office covers the transformation journey required to change the culture in the workplace from processes that suffer from functional separation and "silo-ed" departments to efficient and integrated systems. Most office processes have evolved into separate and autonomous stand-alone functions that are sub-optimized. The result is added wastes in the processes, and the customers are often the first to notice. The wastes parallel the manufacturing floor wastes and deserve the same attention for identification and removal. Yet, the culture of the office is predisposed to work by a separation of duties. Roles and responsibilities are not aligned around processes. The same type of dramatic transformations that were enabled on the concrete factory floor are needed in carpeted offices. This book describes methods to transform the value streams in the office and administrative areas of organizations, and it outlines why Lean works just as well in the office as it does in manufacturing. Wastes typically reach 50% of the process effort, and these processes are ripe for improvement. Throughout the book, waste removal in office processes are fully illustrated with descriptions of applying Lean tools to achieve flow. Case studies from the corporations, non-profits, and higher education institutions demonstrate how various types of organizations have reached success by applying Lean principles to their processes. Lean expert Timothy Schipper outlines the structural and leadership changes that are required to create a transformational journey for process change and continuous improvement. Leadership activities are outlined along with descriptions of how to assign ownership and responsibility for the changes inside the organization. Various leadership behaviors are explored that support and help to sustain the effort. Attention is given to how to start the journey, how to select projects and launch them with clear goals and objectives, and how to run successful workshops, as well as visual tools and techniques and educational content. Finally, and most importantly, a description of the mature Lean culture is offered to show how to embed process improvement into the organization.

AME's Target Magazine has a well-established reputation for detailed case studies of companies adopting lean strategies. These case studies are now available in a well-organized Enterprise Excellence Series, to tap the ongoing desire for information about what other companies are doing to implement lean. To satisfy the growing interest in applying lean to non-manufacturing operations, this first volume of the series covers the implementation of lean to administrative and office applications. Highlights include: Practical, in-depth description of lean office implementations, most of which have not been described in other publications. Responds to reader desire for real-world lean office information. Case Studies are categorized in three areas: Leadership, Organization and Training; Improving Processes; and Lean in Healthcare, making it easy to track down the type of information desired.

While more and more companies are aggressively pursuing Operational Excellence by employing Six Sigma, Lean, and other continuous improvement methods, the concept has yet to be defined in a way that can be easily taught and applied, especially in industries other than manufacturing. This book fills that need. Beyond the Lean Office uses a compelling novel format to illustrate what it takes to create and sustain flow and Operational Excellence in the office. Readers learn as they follow the main character through initial attempts to correct late responses to a primary customer and the evolution to an approach based on Operational Excellence. The story illustrates the day-to-day issues that most organizations face in their pursuit of Operational Excellence. To achieve Operational Excellence, it takes more than just a strong leader with passion and drive. The key ingredient is practical knowledge that can be applied quickly and easily by following a process. This book supplies step-by-step guidance on how to move your office services from point A to point B. The practical insights and guidance presented here create a road map that can be shared with each employee to rapidly move your organization forward. All chapters also include a From the Author section that shares authoritative insights on the topic at hand. After reading this book, you will understand how to design and create self-healing flow that provides reliable, predictable output in the office and operates without the need for management intervention to deliver the services provided by the office. Instead, management focuses on the activities that grow your enterprise.