By Those of you who work in business will likely have heard of lean management already. It’s the latest management approach that’s sweeping the business world, and has already been adopted by countless companies worldwide. Why? In short, it’s because lean management allows you to achieve incredible results, provide better value for customers, and constantly improve your service- and it works across any and all industries!
Lean management is all about cutting out waste, and thinking about things from the customer’s point of view. Eliminating waste makes sense for both the company and the customer, since it means you can deliver results faster, and make savings that you can then pass on to the customer. That’s where the “lean” part of things comes in- cutting away all the fat leaves you with a leaner, more efficient business machine at the end of it.
It all starts by identifying value- namely, what a customer is willing to pay for. Anything else that doesn’t serve this goal is essentially waste. If it doesn’t relate to serving the customer, then it has to go! Plenty of people are under the misconception that lean management only works in the manufacturing industry, but in reality it can be applied to any sector. For instance, if you require your employees to fill out a large amount of internal red tape that you never actually put to use, then you’re wasting valuable time that could be put to use serving more customers and making more money.
So, how do you go about putting lean management into practice? You need to begin by creating a “value stream map”, where you map out your company’s workflow. Be sure to include all the people and processes involved, and assess how much value each aspect brings to the end product or service you deliver to the customer. There will likely be parts that deliver no value whatsoever- so what’s the point in retaining them? A value stream map will also let you see exactly who is doing what. You might uncover ways that the workflow process could be reorganized to make things more efficient- and that leads to the next step of the process.
A vital part of an efficient company is ensuring you have a smooth, continuous workflow. Speeding things up even slightly will save a huge amount of time in the long run, so it’s worth your while to improve your workflow. Often when cross-functional teamwork is involved, you’ll run into multiple roadblocks that could slow down your workflow. Lean management helps eliminate these roadblocks, and encourages you to continually think about ways that you can instead speed things up.
As you can see, then, lean management can bring huge benefits to any company willing to utilize it. Rather than letting a significant chunk of your assets go to waste, you’ll be able to focus on what really matters- providing your customers with a fast, good value service. Not only will you save money, but you will also be able to increase your reputation amongst your customer base, as a company that gets the job done right, and provides excellent value for money. It’s therefore well worth your while to educate yourself and your senior management team about this revolutionary approach to management. If you’d like to learn more about lean management, as well as how you can put this system into practice, then simply click here for plenty of useful info. Before too long, your company will be a leaner, meaner, and more profitable machine!
