Lean Systems
“Lean” has grown from the work of Professor Dan Jones and James Womack to provide a set of tools and techniques which enable the staff within an organisation to analyse the processes in which they are engaged and to find ways of streamlining these.
While those techniques in themselves are powerful and can be taught, “Lean” goes much further: it is a whole-organisation paradigm, based originally on Toyota in the 1980s, and now illustrated by Tesco (and may others) in focussing activity on service.
There are many excellent Consultants available to come along and take your money in exchange for a Lean process redesign - and there will probably be some benefit from any such activity.
BUT, the good ones work through your own staff so that the process review is also a learning experience where the skills are embedded so that the consultants are not needed any more, and the best ones guarantee to train your staff so that Lean thinking becomes the natural way - not some sort of one-off.
Thus the decision to invest in Lean is actually a decision to change the way your organisation works - putting the customer at the centre and getting your staff to improve the way they work...... can be scary for control-freak managers!
Ask the experts .....