Continuous improvement is now the objective of any organization that is determined to succeed. This goal can be achieved through lean management. It is an approach that is looking towards the future, which is why experts are suggesting it as a long-term business approach. Lean management is focusing on implementing small and incremental changes over processes, aiming at boosting efficiency and improving the quality of the product or service offering. A steady workflow and optimizing critical resources are two essential objectives that leaders focus on, when choosing to implement a lean management approach. The way to optimize resources is to eliminate the waste and maximize the value the company produces across all its operations. Management is basically looking at eliminating the waste of time, money, and effort. This can be achieved through a detailed examination of each business process. However, all these objectives and initiatives should be aligned with the customer. Management first has to define the value that is important in relation to customer needs and preferences before defining which processes should be altered in order to eliminate waste. Leaders are now willing to re-assess all work processes, purposes, and people in order to generate more value. A surprising fact is that the identification and execution phases of lean management can generate positive results quite fast and offer several key opportunities for improvement. This impacts the level of commitment that is exerted from the organization (i.e. the leaders and the employees).
It is quite common that a lean management approach is designed and implemented with the assistance of a lean consultant. The goal of any recommendation that a lean consultant will offer is to achieve operational excellence, and “do more with less”. SixSigma analysis is also part of the work a lean consultant, might be performed, in order to generate more value. Moreover, a lean consultant also aims at increasing the profit margins, which is also what an organization is looking at from day 1 of its operations. A lean consultant will strive to boost profits by applying lean principles in practice, managing the lean office in the best possible way, developing all related performance standards, and drawing on process innovation initiatives. Moreover, a lean consultant is responsible for the design, implementation, monitoring process, and maintenance of the whole quality management system, as a major goal is to boost the product or service offering’s quality. BizXL Solutions is a lean management and SixSigma consulting firm that helps customers “do more with less”. Discover more about BizXL, its lean management approach and lean consulting at: https://www.bizxlsolutions.com/operational-excellence/