The Invisible Office

I like to ask groups, “where do most organizations start their lean efforts, and why?”  The most common answer - “in operations, it is easy to see the work.”

That begs the question, “if I can’t see the work, can I apply lean?”  And so begins the challenge of implementing lean in the office or in transactional processes.

The short answer is, “absolutely, yes.”  The key is making the work visible - then the improvement can begin.  To start, there are a host of tools (swim lane diagrams, value stream maps, etc...) that can make a snapshot of the work visible, leading to improvement ideas.  Additionally, there are other tools that can make the actual daily work visible.  If implemented correctly and with understanding, these tools allow abnormalities to be seen - and the improvement can continue.

So don’t fret - this isn’t just stuff for your operations.  In fact, many of the issues you can observe in your operations, originated in the office.