Introduction to Lean Thinking and Identifying Waste

Lean Thinking and Identifying Waste

Lean Thinking demands an organizational culture that is intolerant of waste in all forms.

Here are some important Lean points to remember:

• Simple changes to work methods make huge contributions
• It is owned by people doing the work
• It reduces workload rather than increasing it
• It is easy to understand and implement
• It not only makes your work place more competitive, it makes it a better place to work

Benefits of Applying Lean at your work place

1. Significantly reduced process cycle-time
2. Elimination of costly non-value-added activities
3. Enhanced value creation and team focus
4. Reduced non-recurring and indirect costs
5. Improved utilization of scarce resources
6. Maximized synergy among all related processes

When Lean is applied, the following obstacles are removed, making your work place a better place to work

1. Not-clearly defined organizational roles and responsibilities
2. Chaos resulting from fire fighting and expediting
3. Habit of managing through a functional organization
4. Lack of well-defined and efficient processes
5. Inefficient utilization of valuable human and capital resources
6. Lack of metrics focused on customer value-added processes
7. Lack of productivity enhancing work methods
8. Lack of uniform prioritization of work