Your company can greatly benefit from this approach of Lean

Original Writer ： Koundinya Nemana

Every company from every industry can utilize the techniques of Lean Management to optimize processes, to improve productivity, quality, consistency, and to reduce delays, costs, and wastage. However, I have seen Lean initiatives getting failed in some service / technology industries because they adopt the same conventional approach that was intended for traditional manufacturing industries. Let’s look at the right approach of Lean Management for non-manufacturing industries.

Consultants

I have noticed that majority of the Lean consultants typically come from manufacturing industry background. When they try to roll out the conventional approach of training and implementation, it doesn’t gel well with the dynamics of service / technology / product companies. And sometimes the consultants introduce their own tracking mechanisms which are becoming additional overhead for the companies. To get the real benefits of Lean Management, you need to bring in those consultants who have a service industry background and their job should be to make Lean Management effective and easy to implement for your company.

Customization

All the techniques of Lean Management such as Just in time, Kaizen, Kanban, Heijunka, and so on, are derived from the famous Toyota Production System. You need to carefully select only those techniques that are really needed and relevant for your context. Usually, I prescribe the techniques such as Value Stream Mapping, Mistake Proofing, Workload Balancing, 5S, etc. for service industries. It is very important that the training on these techniques must be customized with the right examples and demonstrations that are relevant to the context of your business.

Integration

I often hear the emphasis on “Lean Transformation” in businesses. Since Lean was originated in manufacturing industry, the idea of Lean Transformation perfectly suits the DNA of any manufacturing company. However, for service companies, we need to aim for integration, not transformation. Because service companies are people-intensive and the dynamics are different, it will be wise to focus on seamless integration of Lean techniques into the organizational processes rather than cultural transformation. For example, an IT company can benefit by seamlessly integrating the mistake proofing concepts of Lean into Design, Development, and Testing processes. Similarly, a Hospital can benefit by integrating the Value Stream Mapping technique of Lean into the patient-admission process.

With this approach of Lean Management in your company, your processes become highly efficient and you will see a positive impact on cost savings, revenues, and profits.