On the Quest for a Lean Office

Back in January, Timothy Schipper published an important new book about transforming workplace culture entitled The Highly Effective Office: Creating a Successful Lean Culture in Any Workplace. I spoke with him on the phone recently and asked him: “How can Lean work just as well in the office as it does in manufacturing?” Here is his complete response:

When David Mann (author of Creating a Lean Culture) suggested to me to write a book about how Lean could be successfully applied in the office, I was a bit reluctant at first. The scale of the project was daunting.  He encouraged me, however, and said if I don’t tell the story of how it was being done in organizations, the story wouldn’t be told. 

The story begins with wondering if Lean concepts could be transferred from manufacturing and be applied effectively in the office?  And could Lean principles be applied to build a culture of continuous improvement in any workplace?  It turns out that the transfer of Lean principles from the concrete floors of manufacturing to the carpeted areas of the office required some fresh approaches and counter-intuitive ideas. 

As the story unfolds, it turns out that Lean does transfer from manufacturing to the office. While the principles of wastes eliminate and flow through a value stream apply, “some translation is required."  The wastes in the office value stream are hidden from view and not in plain site as is inventory between machines in the manufacturing. Because of this, wastes must be exposed. Mapping the informational value streams of office work reveals the waste in the system.  Once the wastes are in plain view, then work can be done to improve what are typically push systems with pull systems that are more visual.

The opportunities for removing wastes from the information value streams in the office can yield dramatic improvements in flow.  To build the practice of making these improvements into the culture requires employee involvement with the support of the leaders.   

The Highly Effective Office describes a road map for the journey of building a Lean culture in the workplace by providing methods to build a workplace that engages both the knowledge worker and the leader in continuous improvement. 

What do you think of  Tim's perspective? Have you applied Lean in the office environment and mapped the value stream?

Mapping the Process -- Finding the Waste

Robert Damelio published a second edition of his best selling book The Basics of Process Mapping this year, and I recently spoke with him about it. I asked him: "While you were developing the second edition of your book, which of the most important concepts in your book still often gets misunderstood?" Here is Robert's reply:

One of the most important (and often misunderstood) properties of work is "waste." Those familiar with the cost of poor quality concept often tend to equate “waste” with defects, rework, returns, inspection, appraisal, failure in test or operation, etc. In general these are forms of waste related to work outputs.

It turns out that more forms of waste, and much greater cost are associated with the resources used and applied during a work activity. This is why waste is defined as any work that does not create value as perceived by the customer.

Here is a table from the new edition of Robert's book that illustrates his points:


What do you think of Robert's table? Do you think his definitions and examples are accurate? What are your experiences with process maps? Do they help diagnose and improve work?

Miami Hospital Targets Waste in Use of Antibiotics

A recent article in the Miami Herald describes efforts by a team at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital to eliminate waste, but in an area I hadn’t seen discussed before – overuse of antibiotics.

Such drugs often are overused, and as the article (by John Dorschner) points out, too much medicine can be a bad thing.

Though proper use can mean cost savings, ``the key factor for this program is patient safety,'' said Thomas Hooton, a University of Miami professor who was once head of the antimicrobial program for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. ``And there is a cost to society.''

Microorganisms are constantly becoming resistant to antibiotics, which are everywhere these days. A patient flushes them out of their body and into the sewer system. Livestock get fed them by the ton.

As bugs become resistant to the older drugs, doctors have to use newer, often more expensive alternatives. That's why institutions around the world have developed antimicrobial programs.

The article notes that antibiotics should be given to certain surgical patients, but the patients should stop receiving the drugs within 24 hours of surgery. To make sure this is done, the hospital has made the anesthesiologist responsible for administering the antibiotics.

That is a process improvement, in keeping with lean principles (though lean is not mentioned in the article).

A more challenging problem is doctors in private practice who prescribe unnecessary antibiotics because patients insist that they do something, and don’t want to hear that the drugs won’t do anything for their particular illness.

Goldschmidt, the UM dean, said the University of Miami and Jackson are working together to establish an evidence-based system that can serve as a blueprint for efficient, effective care by using computerized physician order entry, in which doctors work from a template for specific conditions, in ordering tests, prescribing drugs and such.

I’m not sure that is a lean solution, though it might be considered standard work. I’d like to hear other approaches, if any of you know of some.

But certainly any effort to eliminate waste is positive, if done properly. And that’s the kind of lean thinking I like to see.