Lean Office for Management Consultants

Most offices are actually very similar to factories. They produce certain goods and services and have almost the same problems as every factory.

• Throughput is the number of products or services that a company produces and delivers to customers

• The production is counted as throughput only if it is at the right, agreed with the customer quality

In most companies, inventory is a big problem. Let’s have a look at what we will consider as inventory in the office.

Let’s have a look at the essential lean manufacturing techniques that will help you significantly increase productivity at your office.

Due to differences in waste we only use 5% to create value. In this lecture, I will show you 7 different types of waste that may occur at your business

Let’s have a look at the main types of Waste in Office

Let’s see what may cause the waste in the office

In production, you will know far less than your customer’s team so you have to use smart ways to get to the bottom of things. 5 Why is one of such methods. In this lecture, I will show you how to use it in practice

We show here how to use the so-called OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) Analysis that shows you how efficient you are in using your resources. It is very useful for checking whether you use well machines and equipment/

We show here how to use the so-called OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) Analysis that shows you how efficient you are in using your resources. It is very useful for checking whether you use well machines and equipment

Let’s imagine that you have to help Jorge become more efficient. For that use the Overall Labor Efficiency Framework and estimate by how much he can improve.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

The layout of the office generates a lot of waste. You can achieve big efficiency gains by simply changing the layout.

Imagine that you were asked to prepare an analysis to determine how the rearranging of the main office of the drugstore chain company will help reduce costs.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

You can improve the usage of assets by putting them into a so-called pool. Employees can borrow the assets from the pool when needed.

Let’s imagine that you are working for a pharmaceutical firm. They are struggling with a lack of business analysts that they need for projects. Help them solve this problem.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

Changing the office is associated with many positive aspects. However, it makes sense to check whether the location you are choosing will be optimal for the firm.

You were hired by a cosmetics producer to pick the optimal location for their new office. We will look at 4 potential locations.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

You quite often have situations when people perform at a different pace and with different results. You have to standardize them.

Imagine that you were asked to standardize the process of preparing analyses and presentations. Check first what could be the benefit of such a move.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

A lot can be achieved by increasing Personal Productivity. Let’s briefly have a look at what methods are most useful.

Here I will go briefly through the individual productivity hacks

Here I will go briefly through the individual productivity hacks

In the Office, you will have plenty of bottlenecks that are preventing the firm from growing faster. Let’s see how you remove bottlenecks in practice.

In every company, you have bottlenecks that limit your ability to go forward and deliver more goods and services. Here I will show you how to estimate what is the impact on the whole system and how you can remove and improve them. 

Your friend Ivan works in a content marketing agency and wants to improve the work of his team. Help him use the bottleneck framework

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

Let’s look at examples of bottlenecks in the office

Let’s look at examples of bottlenecks in the office

Let’s imagine that you work for a firm that operates a chain of clinics. You were asked to improve their results by optimizing the typical visits done in their clinics.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

The bottleneck framework is a mix of 2 methods

1. Low hanging fruit framework

2. Theory of constraints / Removing bottlenecks

To help you better understand the bottleneck framework we will go through the following things in this section:

• The process of using the bottleneck framework

• Low hanging fruit

• Bottlenecks

• Bottleneck Framework – Case Study

• When it makes sense to use the bottleneck framework

Below is how you should use the bottleneck framework to select projects

• List potential projects you consider

• Estimate their potential impacts & resources needed

• Identify low hanging fruits

• Check bottlenecks for projects & try to remove them

• Pick the projects & Execute

Imagine that you have to identify which projects should be done for an international chain of drugstores. Use the bottleneck framework to select projects.

A few information about the firm that we will be analyzing

• They have 4 000 stores

• They have named 9 projects

• They mapped which people they need for the projects

• Select the projects you think they should do

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

The bottleneck framework can be used in many situations. Below are some of them

• Middle-sized firms

• Firms in which a limited # of people is involved in most of the projects

• Firms owned by PE

• When a lot of projects happen that the firms have no experience in doing

• After a period of drastic growth of the Head Office

• After a change of power – new CEO or Management Board

Another great concept from Lean Manufacturing that is widely used in the office is the so-called Kanban. Let’s see how it can be used for improving office work.

Kanban is a way in which you can drastically limit work in progress. I will show you in this lecture what it is and what it looks like in practice.

I will show you how to calculate the impact of Kanban in Excel.

In this lecture, I will show you how to take advantage of periods of lower activities using the so-called Kanban

There are 2 main ways to control the progress of the project. To achieve this you can use the presentation template or a Kanban showing the status of all activities/analyses that are supposed to be delivered as a part of the project. We will look at the kanban in this lecture.

The ideal in production is the so-called continuous flow - everything goes smoothly and fast. Products are being produced fast and cheaply. In this section, I will tell you how to achieve it.

Using a sandwich factory I will show you the mistakes people do when they try to create a continuous flow.

I will continue our example of a sandwich factory. I will show you what the continuous flow should look like.

I will continue our example of a sandwich factory. We add the Kanban to the continuous flow.

Imagine that we would like to improve the process of handling customers’ complaints by the Customer Service Department. Let’s have a look at how we can do it.

Let’s have a look at other lean methods that can prove very useful in your quest to improve the work at the office.

5S in short is about cleaning your working station, putting everything in order, and keeping it this way I will show you the stages, examples of 5S, and how to check whether the business has truly implemented 5S

Here I show how to calculate the impact of 5S on cost in Excel.

We are very fast to acquire, buy and collect because even if we do not use it know at some point (usually very distant in the future) specific things may prove to be lifesaving.  Most often, the staff we collect we do not use more than once (80/20 rules come into play. In this lecture, I will show you how to get rid of unused things in practice

Zero defect rules are not about making zero mistakes. It is about finding mistakes as soon as possible and eliminating them. In this lecture, I will show what it is and how to use it in practice.

There are many examples of Poka Yoke in an office environment. Let’s look at some of them.

If you have specialized workers you end up not using most of the available resources. I will show you what you can achieve by having more universal workers.

I will show you how to calculate the impact of universal workers in Excel

Quite often you have one operator per machine. This is often not efficient as machines just need feeding in the goods. 

I will show you how to calculate in Excel the impact of making the workers operate on more than 2 machines at the same time 

Let’s have a look at the examples of devices that can be added to improve the work of employees

Milk run is a method inspired by the way the milk bottles were regularly delivered to and collected from various households using a pre-planned route

Ohno was famous for his passion for continuous improvement. One of his favorite techniques was to remove resources to force the team to be more efficient. This is the so-called Oh No! method

As we have said offices, similar to factories, produce goods and services. We will have a look at how you can measure that and increase it.

Now imagine that you were asked to increase the production capacity of a factory. Try also to calculate the financial impact of the proposed scenarios. Before we look at specific scenarios we have to discuss 2 issues

• What the production capacity depends on?

• How to calculate the monthly production capacity

First, let’s see what the production depends on assuming there is just 1 production stage.

We said that the production generally speaking depends on 3 drivers. Now let’s see how it looks like for the whole month

Here we will discuss the scenarios that we will analyze later.

Here we will discuss the scenarios that we will analyze later.

Here we will discuss the available data that we will use to solve the case study

In every company, you have bottlenecks that limit your ability to go forward and deliver more goods and services. Here I will show you how to estimate what is the impact on the whole system and how you can remove and improve them. I will use a simple production example to show you the effect on the whole system. You will see how the bottleneck can shift from 1 shift to another. You will also learn how to prioritize where it makes sense to invest to get the best results.

Before doing this lecture I strongly encourage you first to take the OEE lecture – we use the OEE concept here so if you are not familiar with it please start with the OEE lecture as a warm-up.

In this lecture, we will see how you can present the result of the analysis in a form of graphs

Imagine that you were hired to increase the capacity of the Customer Service Department in a Fashion Retailer without increasing the number of people.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

If you want to be competitive you have to automate the work in the office. This means using more machines and software to support the work of the people. Let’s see how you can use it in practice

In more and more cases you have to find ways to replace or support people with machines to lower production costs

Offices are perfect places for automation. Let’s see what you can automate and how you can do that in the office.

Imagine that you are working for a fashion discounter that operates a retail chain in Eastern Europe

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.