19Nov

Lean Management Tip

The easiest and quickest improvement you will ever make.

One of the principles of Lean Management is the removal of waste. Waste can be defined as any activity or output that is non value adding; to the company, to the customer, to the process.

An easy and simple way to get started is to ask of any activity (and perhaps the person employed to do such an activity!) is “Would a reasonable customer pay for it?”
If the answer is yes, then all efforts should be directed into performing the activity as efficiently and effectively as possible.


If no then there are 2 alternatives. If you believe that the activity must happen then you have a value perception problem with the customer and you need to enlighten them as to why it is a value adding activity and more importantly the benefits it will bring them.


The second alternative is that you have identified waste in the form of doing something a customer does not want, fixing up an error, doing something twice or simply waiting. Stop doing the activity, identify and fix the things that caused the error or the delay.  Simply ceasing and desisting non value adding activities is the easiest process improvement you will ever do.