Lean Business - What is Lean Business thinking

What is Lean Business Thinking

We offer our clients a variety of change agent services to support the development of this mindset we call lean business thinking. If the employees within your organisation can start to develop a lean business mindset your costs should reduce, you will deliver products and services quicker, your customers will be more satisfied. Our clients have found lean business thinking helps them maximise their capabilities to establish new products and services faster and deliver more value to their customers enabling them to grow sales and profitability with both existing customers and through attracting new ones.

To develop a Lean Business Thinking mindset we help you and your employees understand your business from 3 critical dimensions.

1. Value:
The things your customers care about and maybe is willing to pay for. What your customer’s care about (value) is constantly changing and evolving over time.

Everyone in an organisation must understand and focus on what your customers value, eliminating any activities that do not deliver value towards the needs of the customers.

2. Visibility:
Everyone in an organization should have a clear understanding of the business value stream, and the decisions that impact the value stream.

Everything should be visible, nothing should be hidden. Everyone must clearly understand the priorities of the business. All processes should be understood with an "end to end” perspective. Everyone should understand who their actions and decisions impact. You must strive to understand the value streams of your keys customers and suppliers.

3. Velocity:
Value adding activities in a business must operate without interruption and delay (flow).

Everyone in an organisation should focus on systematically eliminating the causes of delay and waiting..

Important Definitions

Value
The thing your customers care about, and maybe is willing to pay for.

Waste
Any activity that consumes resources without adding value is potentially waste. Common wastes include corrections, approving, searching, walking, batching, waiting, rework, progress chasing.

Value adding work
Any activity you perform that is towards the need of your customer. Any activity that transforms or changes something towards the need of your customer, and is completed right first time.

Efficiency
Is doing the "thing" right

Effectiveness
Is doing the "right" thing

Innovation
Is doing "new" things

Flow
To add value without interruption (An important goal of lean is to create processes that flow)

The Value Stream
All the activities (internal and external) necessary to capture the customer requirements then design, produce and deliver a product or service.

 

#leanbusinessthinking

Ask the Lean Expert a question >

The Benefits

After applying lean business thinking our clients have experienced improvements and savings in the following areas:

  • More satisfied customers
  • Predictable business outcomes
  • Reduced payment cycle
  • Supply chain improvements
  • Shorter lead-times
  • Reduced time to market
  • Reduced costs
  • Faster technology maturity
  • Reduced rework
  • Simplified processes
  • Improved business communication
  • Projects and programmes delivered faster and on time
  • Reduced inventories
  • Design Re-use
  • The development of an improvement culture
  • Levelled work demand
  • Reduced scrap
  • More resources
  • Better strategic focus

> read more

Aerospace | Automotive | Engineering | Financial Services | Manufacturing | Software & Computer Services | Technology