Knowledge Base · Foundations
What is Lean?
Lean is a method focused on maximising customer value while minimising waste. Waste is anything that consumes resources but adds no value for the end customer. Chapter 1 names eight common wastes, from defects and waiting to unused talent, and shows each one appearing in ordinary office work, far from a factory floor.
The appendix glossary defines Lean as a methodology focused on maximizing customer value while minimizing waste, creating more value for customers with fewer resources by relentlessly eliminating activities that do not add value. Chapter 1 puts it more simply: Lean is fundamentally about the elimination of waste, and it gives a framework for finding and removing it.
- Defects: work done incorrectly and done over, such as a report rewritten because it used the wrong data.
- Overproduction: doing more than is needed, or doing it before it is needed.
- Waiting: time lost waiting for a decision, an approval, information, or a slow system.
- Non-utilized talent: failing to engage the minds and skills of your people.
- Transportation: moving information through excessive handoffs and approval chains.
- Inventory: backlogs of unfinished work, such as 500 unread emails.
- Motion: unnecessary movement, such as searching a disorganised server for one file.
- Extra-processing: doing more work than the customer requires, or gold-plating a project.
The practical starting point in Chapter 1 is modest. Pick the waste you see most often, keep a simple tally each time you meet it for three days, and do not try to fix it yet. Just gather the data. Seeing waste clearly is the first Lean skill.
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Related questions
- What are the "Big Three" simple tools to start continuous improvement?
- What's the difference between Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement?
- What is process mapping, and how do I map a process?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 1 (Understanding Continuous Improvement) and the CI glossary in the book's Appendix.