When we talk about business innovation we must mention the lean office . It is a methodology to improve the internal administrative processes of a company. Its etymological meaning would be “slender office” and refers to everything we can optimize and discard to increase productivity in an office.
What is a lean office?
The key idea is to reduce everything that slows , hinders or bureaucratizes administrative work to achieve continuous improvement through lean tools that maximize work performance. The lean office is a science in which specialized professionals apply a methodology that tries to detect “waste” or “leftovers” and eliminates them to make the work more efficient .
Lean Office: main sources of waste
- The first one is the surplus of information and refers to how the information is treated within the processes of one department or section to another, and what is the average time it takes to assimilate it.
- The second one is the leftover process ; those attributed to waiting, downtime, corrections, counting, overproduction or saturation. The objective is to identify them in order to eliminate them, respond in a more agile way and continue applying the method of continuous improvement.
- Another of these wastes, the third, refers to the surplus of personnel . Sometimes it happens in companies that employ workers in tasks that are superfluous or directly unnecessary. Or worse, they hinder each other. The idea is to clearly define the function of each one of them so that the roles are clear and the work flows without added problems. You have to clarify objectives and tasks.
- And the last one is the surplus of environment or security . We refer to the physical elements. What security is in the company? Are the elements that we find safe and ergonomic? Do you help us in our daily tasks? Are our workers comfortable with the work environment?
The implementation of the lean office for business transformation
This is one of the most recommended business improvement methodologies today, as it provides an organization that gives rise to cooperation and in which efficiency and communication prevails. Everything must be accompanied by a process of modernization of the company, investment in R&D, in the appropriate software, technologies that facilitate us to carry out an analysis of the state of the appropriate company.
The fundamental mission is to eliminate that “noise”, those erroneous and inadequate processes that hinder a healthy, bearable and direct work. It is intended to reduce costs without losing resources. Mind you, the lean office is not an economic cut, it is a process of continuous improvement in the organization and the business organization chart.
The key concept is that of added value. Any task and / or process that brings something to the company will be useful and necessary, and everything that increases waste and hinders the processes will be simply expendable. This is one of the most used business improvement methodologies today in start-ups around the world, obtaining benefits, both immediate, as well as medium and long term.
