Eliminating Waste in the Lean Manufacturing  Office Environment

By Dusty Alexander

The plant is running smoothly, all machines are operating at capacity and scrap has been reduced to the lowest levels experienced in the history of the plant. The shop schedule is running fine due to the introduction of an enterprise resource planning software system-but something just doesn't seem right. The expected ROI is falling a bit short of expectations and on-time delivery is still not what it should be. You wonder what it is you've overlooked, what area of the operation is throwing the proverbial kink in the works.

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Then, one day, you just happen through the front office and it's as if you had been shot through with a bolt of lightning. All around you are the vestiges of what you had been trying to eliminate on the shop floor. Paperwork batches, duplicated efforts, long searches for missing or incomplete data in files. In short, while the company had considered no-stone-left-unturned in its quest for shop floor efficiency through enterprise resource planning (ERP), it had not completely considered the impact a wasteful front office would have upon the ROI. Indeed, front office waste is a considerable reason why many ERP implementations take longer than expected to complete.

What can you do to ensure a successful and quick implementation of your ERP software system, and maximize your ROI? See how process improvements can be made in the front office. Here are four helpful tips:

1. Create Your Lean Office Team: Identify the experts in your office in targeted business practices and tap them for participation in a team to brainstorm ideas for leaning those processes. As well, be cross-functional in the make-up of the lean office team. Include some employees that are effected by these processes but not directly involved in their management (e.g., inventory clerks, sales staff, etc.).
2. Develop Value Stream Maps: Create value stream maps that address both the present state of the value, as well as what might be tapped as opportunities in the future. Follow how orders proceed through and are tracked by the front office-from quoting and order entry all the way through shipping. Map how long it currently takes to complete each tasking element, as well as the various paths the task takes to travel between departments. Are you presently computerized fully in these operations, or is there hardcopy paperwork that needs to travel along? Hopefully, you will be able to visual and analyze the sources of waste production in your processes so you can introduce improvements.

   You should also use the same technique to map those areas that have the best opportunity for improvement. A future value stream map will guide your front office toward mile posts that mark significant efficiency goal achievements, as well as how long you expect this improvement to take place.

3. Improve Your Front Office Processes: Use a bottom-up approach to get rid of what's not working well. Think in the same lean terms used out on the shop floor-pull production techniques are just as suited for the front office as the machining areas. Eliminate bottlenecks of paperwork that, in turn, hold up the efficient movement of information and task completion.
4. Standardize and Train: Look for those aspects of front office tasking that are pretty much routine and repetitive, and establish repeatability in the methods employed. This will not only save time in process, but it will reduce overall training costs. And, as well all know, training is perhaps the most vital part of continuous improvement. Front office workers tend to be more accepting of change in transition to a lean environment if they feel a part of their own lean development process.

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For all the same reasons you chose to implement lean in the manufacturing/production operation, the front office should not be forgotten when it comes to continuous improvement. It is only with a complete review of office processes and their relative degrees of efficiency that we can make the adjustments that enable a more streamlined office approach-and ultimately improved ROI and on-time delivery.

http://globalshopsolutions.com/

Dusty Alexander is the President of Global Shop Solutions. Global Shop Solutions is the largest privately held ERP software company in the United States.

Copyright 2008 - Global Shop Solutions. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give the author name credit.

If you want to learn how to use the lean process, I highly recommend the Lean Manufacturing web-based training course. You will get a thorough understanding of all the components of lean manufacturing, including Value Stream Mapping, six sigma, 5S and much more.

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