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Much more than a methodology, Lean Office can be understood as a transformative philosophy. This practice enhances efficiency by eliminating waste and optimizing your organization’s administrative processes.
The main focus of Lean Office is to maximize customer value by reducing, or even eliminating, everything that does not add value.
Have you ever imagined how administrative processes would be if they were executed with fewer bureaucracies or irrelevant tasks?
The point of this philosophy is to create agile and efficient systems that are quickly adapted to market demand, considering mainly administrative activities optimization and simplification.
What is Lean Office?
Lean Office is a perspective based on the principles of lean manufacturing, specifically for administrative processes and operations.
The lean philosophy originated on the “shop floor,” aiming to improve the execution of activities to combat waste in industrial processes.
In this sense, when it comes to Lean Office, the lean methodology optimizes the flow of non-manufacturing or physical activities. That is, those corresponding to the administrative environment and offices.
It consists of adapting and improving the flow of information and knowledge while eliminating various wastes, such as time spent on bureaucratic activities.
Broadly speaking, the methodology will identify and eliminate activities that do not add value to the business, enabling the simplification of workflows, improving communication, and increasing productivity in offices.
What does Lean Office eliminate and what are its benefits?
Although it is not as simple to identify waste in Lean Office as it is in industrial processes, it is present in companies’ daily lives.
This happens because, unlike the production area, there are no physical products in the administrative sector, which makes diagnosis more challenging.
- However, Lean Office can eliminate:
- tasks and time spent on lengthy or bureaucratic activities;
- waiting time to perform a dependent activity in the flow;
- errors in data entry;
- production or excess of irrelevant documents and reports;
- misuse of technological solutions that should benefit the processes.
Considering the reduction of these items, the changes brought about by the Lean Office philosophy generate numerous benefits, among which are highlighted:
- elimination of waste in processes and reduction of costs associated with administrative areas;
- reduction in the execution and waiting time of activities;
- simplification and agility to workflows;
- reduction of errors and bottlenecks;
- process standardization and increased productivity;
- reorganization of the work environment;
- focus on activities with higher added value;
- improved communication and transparency in operations;
- quick responses and adaptation to market changes, demands, and requirements;
- greater involvement of professionals;
- control over information;
- quick identification of problems or adversities;
- continuous process improvement.
Implementing the Lean Office Philosophy
When it comes to administrative processes, it is necessary to consider that implementing Lean Office will pose some challenges. Among them, consider the difficulty in identifying waste, differentiating between those that are commonplace and those that originate from activities that do not add value.
With this in mind, the implementation of Lean Office is based on four essential steps:
1. Identify the activities that add value to the office
The first step to implementing Lean Office is to identify all waste. For this, it will be necessary to understand the strategic objectives set by the company that must be achieved.
By understanding the business goals, it will be much simpler to separate activities that add value from those that do not.
To better understand your processes, you need to have a macro view of the activities. This in-depth knowledge is obtained by mapping processes.
Using a BPMS software will allow you to map, understand, and evaluate workflow tasks, indicating which ones are essential to strategies and add value to the end consumer.
All tasks should be analyzed with a focus on the customer. That is, those that generate greater satisfaction or improve the experience.
2. Reduce waste and improve process quality.
With processes mapped and non-value-adding activities identified, it is time to consider ways to eliminate and reduce waste.
Tools, software, and programs such as 5S and Kaizen are capable of increasing and improving information flow and productivity.
Integrated Management Platforms make the process smarter, optimizing workflow. Process automation is a great tool when it comes to eliminating irrelevant tasks.
That is, it is the basis for real improvements to occur, contributing not only to waste reduction but also to process quality.
3. Remodel and standardize processes
Once the activity flow has been analyzed and unnecessary activities excluded, a new way of executing processes must be developed, in an optimized and standardized manner.
Standardization will ensure that all professionals involved perform activities in the same way. In addition to increasing productivity, this will improve performance.
Therefore, review procedures and involve employees to identify and suggest improvements. And, once standardization is implemented, provide training and development so that all changes are fully understood by those responsible and executors.
4. Implement the culture of continuous improvement
The issue of improving processes and reducing waste involves implementing and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement.
The more processes are observed and analyzed, mainly by checking performance indicators, the greater their improvements will be.
Keep in mind that Lean Office will require incessant and recurrent search to improve the operation and efficiency of activities.
Lean Office and Technology
Associating Lean Office with technology is an important step for implementing and continuing best practices.
Integrated Management Platforms combine functionalities and centralize data and information in a single solution.
The use of such tools encompasses numerous sectors and departments, including the administrative area, providing a unified and macro view that facilitates and speeds up decision-making.
It is possible to say that by combining Lean Office with Fusion Platform, an end-to-end platform, there will be improvements and monitoring of implemented changes.
As no company is the same, Fusion uses low-code configuration so that users can customize the tool according to their demands.
In addition to centralizing information, there is mobility so that data access can be done from anywhere, at any time.
Take advantage of of Fusion Platform’s benefits combined with Lean Office principles and enhance your administrative processes.
Count on Neomind to transform your company, eliminate waste, and promote a culture of continuous efficiency.
