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Optimizing Flow in Office and Service Processes (1 Day Class)

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Description:
These days more and more organizations strive to become a Lean Enterprise – to apply the common-sense business practices embodied by Lean Thinking to all areas of a business. There are many well-documented successes in manufacturing applications. However when it comes to identifying value, waste, and flow in service organizations or administrative processes within manufacturing companies, many organizations struggle with applying lean principles and tools to their non-production order-to-cash processes.

An often-quoted reason for this difficulty is that the nature of work performed in the “information management” value streams is “different” – it is highly variable, and more “creative”. Many companies use it as an excuse to discard lean concepts as not applicable in non-manufacturing settings. This, however, is a critical mistake. What it does mean is that a deeper understanding of lean is required by those who seek to implement the concepts within such organizations. The challenge is being creative enough to figure out how to best use them in non-production areas of the company in order to realize meaningful benefits. Only with a deep understanding of the underlying principles can they be successfully implemented with confidence.

If you have attended our workshop on Value-Stream Mapping for Office and Service, you know that it demonstrates the application of a fundamental lean tool—value-stream mapping—in business processes such as administrative, professional, and transactional activities. Now we want to take the next step and present other lean tools that can be used to level business processes, and create flow and customer pull in the office and service environment.

Benefits:
This workshop will demonstrate the application of the key lean concepts of standard work, visual management, flow, and pull to information-intensive processes most often found in service and administrative environments.

Through a simulation, participants will gain first-hand experience in an office kaizen event. Participants will identify changes, implement them, and measure the impact of their efforts. In this way the workshop will closely relate to an actual office kaizen event.

 

 

 

Course Outline:
This workshop will provide an overview of lean concepts, and their application to office and administrative processes. The concepts covered are:

  • Waste Reduction
  • Standard Work
  • Workplace Organization
  • Batch Reduction
  • Flow
  • Pull
  • Leveling
  • Management Timeframe or “Pitch”

 

After a “baseline” round, the participants will have the opportunity to apply most of the lean concepts covered to the simulated office during two subsequent rounds.

 

Learning Objectives:


At the end of this workshop you should be able to:

  • Better identify waste in an office and service environment
  • Recognize opportunities to apply lean concepts in an office and service environment
  • Understand the measurable impact of the application of various lean concepts
  • Re-organize your own business processes to create flow and customer pull

 

Who Should Attend:
Anybody who works in in a service organization or the administrative area of a manufacturing companycan benefit from this workshop, including managers.

Instructors:
James (Beau) Keyte

Beau began his lean consulting career in the mid-1980s in the automotive industry, transitioned to adapting lean techniques to service and administrative processes in 1992, and has since progressed from implementing tools and techniques to developing and teaching the kind of self-sufficient thinking that challenges work and management processes, improves organizational performance and alignment, and sustains culture change. He now spends half of his time in the healthcare arena where he is designing new ways for organizations to engage, learn, grow, and succeed. In addition to assisting companies in implementing lean strategies, he also trains organizations in a variety of public and private settings. He is currently partner in the Lean Transformations Group and a faculty member and instructor for curricula at the Lean Enterprise Institute, the University of Michigan, and The Ohio State University. Beau authored a number of journal articles and the Shingo-Award winning book The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Office and Administrative Processes. He also an author of Perfecting Patient Journeys and Mapping to See: A Value-Stream Improvement Kit for Office and Service. Beau holds BSE and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan. .

 

Drew Locher

Drew began developing and implementing improvement initiatives while working for General Electric in the 1980s. Since leaving GE in 1990, he has helped a variety of industrial and service companies with organizational development and lean implementations. Drew helped the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) develop a Lean University, providing training to roughly 1,000 MEP field engineers helping small to medium-sized manufacturers throughout the country. He has helped companies in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, transportation, distribution, education, financial services, and manufacturing implement lean and organizational redesign.

He is co-author with Beau Keyte of The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value-Stream Mapping for Administrative and Office Processes, which received a Shingo Research Award in 2005. Drew is also the author of Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development - a How-to Guide to Streamlining Time to Market. His latest book is Lean Office and Service Simplified: The Definitive How-To Guide. He currently aids companies implementing lean through Change Management Associates.


Workshop Suggestion:
To maximize your learning experience we recommend that prior to attending this program you take following workshop or have a good understanding of the concepts presented within it.
Suggested Reading for this Workshop:

Price: $800.00 ($700.00 if the participant is taking 2 or more workshops at one location)
Price includes all participant materials, breakfast, lunch and snacks each day

Locations and Dates for Optimizing Flow in Office and Service Processes
June 27, 2013  
Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel
Toronto, ON
Canada
Instructor(s): Drew Locher
Schedule: 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Hotel Discount Available
Important Information About This Event & Location

We encourage you to make hotel accommodations early.

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Cancelation Policy
Our workshops are designed to cater to a limited number of participants.  If you must cancel a workshop registration, you will be given a full refund up to four weeks before the workshop. A cancelation occuring within four weeks of the workshop will be subjected to a $350 cancelation fee.  Substitutions may be made at any time prior to the start of the workshop. To cancel a workshop registration, please call LEI at (617) 871-2900.