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NAVIGATION

Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
2253 S. Oneida
Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224

We help people think!

Most people think of Lean as applicable to the factory floor, but isn't an office building the factory floor for white collar work?

In the March 21-27, 2011 Business Week, Eric Spitznagel reports that:

59 percent of workers admitted hiding office supplies from colleagues.
46 percent had trouble deciding what to throw away

From a Lean perspective, what is office supply hoarding? Excess inventory.
What is failure to throw stuff away? Failure to 5S the workplace.

Spitznagel goes on to theorize that the root cause of office clutter is fear; what if I throw this away and need it later?

And that's just the I for Inventory in the speed bumps of Lean. What about everything else in DOWNTIME:

Delays
One of the biggest delays: decision making and sign offs. How long does it take and how long should it take to make decisions? Why do so many documents require several layers of signoff?

Overproduction
Ever see people making copies of documents that no one will ever read?

Waste and Rework
Mistakes result in waste and rework. Look in any cubicle trash can and you'll find evidence of waste and rework.

Non-value Added Processing
I worked with one IT architecture group who had self managed themselves into 80 hour work weeks producing IT architectures that no one wanted. Just because you're doing it doesn't mean it has value. We used to turn off reports every so often just to see if anyone was reading them. Most of the time, no one was.

Transportation
How much unnecessary movement of materials occurs in the office?

Inventory
How many out-of-date forms reside in closets?

Movement
How much unnecessary movement of people occurs on the office floor? When I worked in the phone company, we had one big printer for an entire floor. If you needed to print anything, you had to press the print button and run to the printer before someone else took your printout. A smaller, slower printer for each employee would reduce unnecessary movement.

Employee Creativity
There's a lot of bright ideas about how to make the office more effective and efficient. Are you listening to them?

Lean your office workspace. You'll be faster, better and cheaper. Isn't that what everyone wants: to do more with less?

Free Lean Six Sigma Video Training Series

Money Belt Training - the basic tools needed to deliver results
Green Belt Training - MSA Gage R&R, Hypothesis Testing, additional charts
Champions Training - implementation strategy to maximize results

Hire Jay Arthur to train your staff in his one-day Lean Six Sigma Workshop! Contact Jay at (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com.

Order Lean Six Sigma System Now Want to increase your profits and slash costs by $250,000? Consider our risk-free trial of the Complete Lean Six Sigma System (#490)

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