Lean Service

Do you work in or manage any of the following? Call centres, archiving, design offices, estimating or accounts departments, property or housing services divisions, or any of the myriad of other sections that handle information?

Construction operations are, of course, not just concerned with what happens on sites or in the tenants’ home, information flow is also critical. When physical activity is observed on site it is relatively easy to spot inefficiencies but in an office environment this can be much more difficult.

The philosophy for improvement is however the same, start by understanding that activity is not the same as work.

Activity = Work + Waste

We define work as anything which adds value to the business. We also know that this does not take up all of the day. How much of your time is spent on rework; chasing late orders; searching for lost files; delays from poor quality information or even having to walk 50m to the photocopier?

Studies have shown that, on average, the level of waste in a service environment is about 40%. This provides an enormous opportunity for improvement and for subsequent savings. Look out into your office, at the people who are there, what amount of real work is coming from all that activity? 6ix Consulting can help you implement the changes you need to turn activity into real money making work.

For those organisations already on their lean journey, we also offer a system-wide transformation programme. Understanding an organisation as a system is credited by W.E.Deming to be the main catalyst for success of the post-war industrial revolution in Japan. Again, the concepts are simple:

1. Understand the purpose of our organisation, what are you trying to deliver?
2. Understand that individual departments may have a purpose, all of their own, not aligned to that of the organisation.

We know that measures drive behaviours. What departmental or indeed individual measures exist that actually work against the overall success of the organisation as a whole? We have the skills and experience of bringing people together to work through these agendas and produce realigned and successful businesses.

6ix Consulting offers comprehensive training and facilitation services for the application of lean and systems thinking in the service environment. Please contact us to discuss how we can tailor a package to suit your organisational needs.