Lean Thinking

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Jay Keller Premium Member
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Lean Administration
Ever tried to do lean in administration? Not easy, right? What is exactly waste in administration? If you stick to the very narrow definition of waste, well, everything! But that cannot be the case one thinks and you are right, look at it that way, your customer in administration is most of the time the internal customer and then the definition of value add (and therefore the definition of waste) is valid:

Not waste if it:
- Changes shape or function
- Is wanted/required by the customer
- Is required by law

Well that said, that is already a starting point. And that is exactly where I am right now. I will update this Forum if I have something to share.

Any feedback or ideas from other members, hey, I am wide open!

Jay
- 08 Feb 2008, 03:04 am
Jay Keller wrote: > Ever tried to do lean in administration? Not easy, right? What is > exactly waste in administration? If you stick to the very narrow > definition of waste, well, everything! But that cannot be the case > one thinks and you are right, look at it that way, your customer in > administration is most of the time the internal customer and then the > definition of value add (and therefore the definition of waste) is > valid: > > Not waste if it: > - Changes shape or function > - Is wanted/required by the customer > - Is required by law > > Well that said, that is already a starting point. And that is > exactly where I am right now. I will update this Forum if I have > something to share. > > Any feedback or ideas from other members, hey, I am wide open! > > Jay
Ralf Lippold Premium Member Group moderator
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Re: Lean Administration
Hi Jay,

I also wonder why we are not yet focusing more in the administrative side of the value chain.

Peter Drucker in his book "The Daily Drucker" (20 May actually for anybody who wants to read the complete stuff) says, "Knowledge work includes manual operations that require industrial engineering". Another quote is, "...In developed countries the challenge is no longer to make manual work productive. The central challenge will be to make knowledge workers productive. But, there is a tremendous amount of knowledge work -including work requiring highly advanced and theoretical work- that includes MANUAL operations. And the productivity of these operations also requires Industrial Engineering, the name by which Taylor's methodology now goes."

I wonder where this kind of engineers is hidden in organizations? Shouldn't we start all together as we all know what the paper work, thinking, business meetings, etc. is all about (we are actually the shopfloor workers being on the office-shopfloor!)?

See you around for further knowledge sharing (why not via a wiki where we can post our personal "small" projects in the administration fields)

Ralf
- 08 May 2008, 6:11 pm
Ralf Lippold wrote: > Hi Jay, > > I also wonder why we are not yet focusing more in the administrative > side of the value chain. > > Peter Drucker in his book "The Daily Drucker" (20 May actually for > anybody who wants to read the complete stuff) says, "Knowledge work > includes manual operations that require industrial engineering". > Another quote is, "...In developed countries the challenge is no > longer to make manual work productive. The central challenge will be > to make knowledge workers productive. But, there is a tremendous > amount of knowledge work -including work requiring highly advanced > and theoretical work- that includes MANUAL operations. And the > productivity of these operations also requires Industrial > Engineering, the name by which Taylor's methodology now goes." > > I wonder where this kind of engineers is hidden in organizations? > Shouldn't we start all together as we all know what the paper work, > thinking, business meetings, etc. is all about (we are actually the > shopfloor workers being on the office-shopfloor!)? > > See you around for further knowledge sharing (why not via a wiki > where we can post our personal "small" projects in the administration > fields) > > Ralf
Paul Jansen
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Re^2: Lean Administration
Hi,

There are several good books describing in detail the different types of waste in an office / administrative environment. Personally I like the book below which basically details 26 categories of surface waste and 4 categories of leadership waste. Although the book provides a good idea how to set-up an organisational framework to address the wastes, it only provides general solutions to resolve the different types of administration waste.

Office Kaizen
by William Laureau
ISBN: 0-87389-556-8

Cheers,
Paul
This post was modified on 04 Jun 2008 at 09:39 pm.
- 04 Jun 2008, 9:38 pm
Paul Jansen wrote: > Hi, > > There are several good books describing in detail the different types > of waste in an office / administrative environment. Personally I like > the book below which basically details 26 categories of surface waste > and 4 categories of leadership waste. Although the book provides a > good idea how to set-up an organisational framework to address the > wastes, it only provides general solutions to resolve the different > types of administration waste. > > Office Kaizen > by William Laureau > ISBN: 0-87389-556-8 > > Cheers, > Paul
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Markus Schranner Premium Member
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Re^4: Lean Administration
There are basically seven types of deadly wastes (in some cases 7 +1). When you reduce these, most of the muda is eliminated.

These 7 deadly wastes are defects, overproduction, waiting, non-use or mis-use of people, transportation, inventory, and movement. The +1 can be excess-processing.

My experience is, that when you have defined what the stakeholders need and your vision is established (not in that order :), it is pretty easy to find the wastes in manufacturing areas as well as in offices. E.g. the usage of a spaghetti diagramm can help you to reduce movement in your office. Find out where people have to go to get information, forms, etc. and rework the layout afterwards.

In UTC we use this methodology to create a lean environment in all areas.
- 19 Nov 2009, 4:07 pm
Markus Schranner wrote: > There are basically seven types of deadly wastes (in some cases 7 > +1). When you reduce these, most of the muda is eliminated. > > These 7 deadly wastes are defects, overproduction, waiting, non-use > or mis-use of people, transportation, inventory, and movement. The +1 > can be excess-processing. > > My experience is, that when you have defined what the stakeholders > need and your vision is established (not in that order :), it is > pretty easy to find the wastes in manufacturing areas as well as in > offices. E.g. the usage of a spaghetti diagramm can help you to > reduce movement in your office. Find out where people have to go to > get information, forms, etc. and rework the layout afterwards. > > In UTC we use this methodology to create a lean environment in all > areas.
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Achim Stürmer
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Re^6: Lean Administration
To find any articles you can sarch for

TIMWOOD in the internet (Transport, Inventory Movement, Watining, Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defect). You can find several links there.

Regards
- 20 Nov 2009, 08:58 am
Achim Stürmer wrote: > To find any articles you can sarch for > > TIMWOOD in the internet (Transport, Inventory Movement, Watining, > Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defect). You can find several links > there. > > > > Regards
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Lean Thinking

Lean Administration

Re: Lean Administration

Re^2: Lean Administration

Re^4: Lean Administration

Re^6: Lean Administration