What is a Lean Process? Learn How to Boost Efficiency and Eliminate Waste
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An effective manager or business leader should always keep an eye out for ways to cut down on waste. Eliminating waste—whether it’s costs, time, or manpower—will promote efficiency and growth within your business.
One proven method of eliminating waste is a lean process. Although a lean process was originally developed to optimize manufacturing, it can be applied to nearly every industry to reduce waste and boost efficiency.
What is Lean Process Improvement?
Lean process improvement is a methodology that emphasizes the elimination of waste within a process. To put it simply, a lean process helps you accomplish more with less.
One of the most important aspects of this process is encouraging continuous improvement. To effectively implement a lean process, every level of the organization should be constantly looking for areas of improvement.
Eliminate Waste With the 4 Steps of a Lean Process
A lean process should be used at every level of the workflow process, and it can be broken down into four simple steps.
Step 1: Identify a Problem
The first step in a lean process is identifying areas of improvement. Some of the most common problems that the lean process can improve are:
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Bottlenecks
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Unnecessary expenses
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Overstaffing
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Overproduction
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Delays
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Defects
Bottom-up communication is an essential part of identifying areas of improvement. As a manager or business leader, you should encourage your team to be on the lookout for wasted resources.
Step 2: Identify a Solution
Now that you have identified a problem, it’s time to brainstorm solutions. To do this, you should work with your team to come up with a plan that will improve the affected process. Sometimes, multiple problems within a process can be solved with a single solution.
Read our related article to discover creative problem solving techniques in the workplace.
Step 3: Implement the Solution
During this step, you and your team apply changes to the process that will hopefully reduce waste. Communication is vital during this step to ensure that your team is effectively applying the new changes.
Step 4: Monitor and Review Progress
The last step is assessing the new changes to determine if they are actually eliminating waste. Also, you should make sure that your team can effectively apply these new changes long-term. Although a solution may provide temporary improvements, you should ensure that it doesn’t negatively impact other aspects of the process.
5 Key Concepts of a Lean Process
Understanding the key concepts of a lean process is particularly beneficial for managers and business leaders. While the steps of a lean process should be applied at every level, the key concepts help eliminate waste at a larger scale.
The five key concepts of a lean process include:
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Assess Value—Determine what the customer values in the product or service
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Visualize Process—Visualize which activities contribute to customer value
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Identify Practices—Remove any obstacles that can disrupt the team’s workflow
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Pull System—Implement actions based on actual customer needs, not based on forecasts or projections
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Continuing Process—Continuously look for opportunities to improve processes
These key concepts will optimize your resources while keeping you on track towards completing your business objectives. To ensure a lean process is performing consistently, the key concepts should be applied in a continuous cycle.
For more information on what makes an efficient business leader, read our related guide to discover the responsibilities of project managers.
Achieving Organization – 5 S’s of a Lean Process
An important part of a lean process is organizing workflow. To make it easier to remember, the organizational aspects of a lean process can be identified with the following 5 S’s:
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Sort—Remove unnecessary items from the work area, retaining only what is needed
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Set in Order—Every item should have a designated location to promote efficiency
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Shine—Keep the workplace clean and organized, make sure items are returned to their designated locations
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Standardize—Ensure workplace practices are consistent and every employee is aware of their responsibilities
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Sustain—Continuously engage with employees to review and maintain practices
By following the 5 S’s of a lean process, you can implement a workplace environment that encourages organization and consistency.
Putting It Into Practice—How to Implement a Lean Process
There are a variety of techniques that can be used to effectively implement a lean process. These techniques condense the important aspects of a lean process into routine practices that are easy to implement.
Kanban Boards
Kanban Boards are visual tools that help manage workflow. They are especially useful for keeping track of timelines, identifying bottlenecks, and visualizing progress. Kanban Boards maximize efficiency by organizing tasks and improving workflow.
Kaizen Philosophy
Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that means continuous improvement and change for the better. Kaizen recognizes that no system is perfect, and there should be a continuous effort towards perfecting a system with incremental improvements. This philosophy emphasizes collaboration, waste elimination, and continual optimization.
Work in Progress (WIP) Limits
WIP limits are constraints on the amount of work that is assigned to an individual or team. These constraints are implemented to prevent overloading team members with tasks. WIP limits enhance productivity and quality by allowing team members to apply their focus on one task at a time.
Lean Six Sigma
Six Sigma specifically targets defects in a manufacturing process. It encourages data-driven improvements to reduce product variation. When combined with a lean process, it helps manufacturers reduce waste and achieve a high level of quality and accuracy.
Want to learn how to implement Six Sigma into your process? We offer a powerful, self-paced certificate that gives participants an overview of the Six Sigma methodology and some of the tools required to deploy Six Sigma in their own organizations.
Take Your Business to the Next Level With REDC
The Regional Economic Development Center (REDC) at Yavapai College has the tools you need to help you scale your business. We collaborate with business leaders to provide a variety of growth-oriented services for you and your business.
We offer everything you and your employees need to upscale your business, from events and business connections to customized corporate training courses. If you’re looking for effective strategies that can take your business to the next level, consider checking out the business services at REDC.