Workshop:
Engaging the Lean Office
For the purposes of this workshop, we define office processes as everything an organization does that is not a direct production effort for customer value generation. While many think of office processes as either wasteful or non-value-adding, it makes much better sense to consider them as generating support value to the organization, to the extent, and only to the extent, that they are
(1) indispensable to enable customer value generation, or
(2) maintain the viability and competitiveness of a business.
Our focus on support value also solicits respect for those engaged in these office processes. Try to obtain support from your office staff for the continuous improvement of their daily efforts when they find their value ignored or denied!
Examples for the first type of support value include product and process design, supply and distribution chain management, quality assurance or purchasing; for the second type think of workforce hiring, training and development, sales and marketing or the financial processes that ensure corporate cash flow.
The workshop is structured around the following topics:
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The structure of the lean enterprise and its effect on the lean office
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The relationship of value and waste
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Support value streams: A methodology of their analysis and remediation
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Lean office workflows: Some simple case studies
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Lean office workflows: Some complex case studies
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The electronic office
Target audience (experience):
Anyone interested in the lean office and the analysis and improvement of its workflows, or generally intellectually adventurous, regardless of industry or role.
Target audience (organizational role):
Leaders at all levels; anyone with a formal or informal support role in lean transformation; or with functional interests in the support value stream.
Duration: One to two days - available on site; two-day workshop to include an improvement event.