Your customers are at the mercy of your processes so they need to be good.   

 

We work with your people to take a fresh look at business processes, simplifying and streamlining, accelerating and fool proofing them.  Peter Drucker said “culture eats strategy for breakfast” but we also know that process can eat people for lunch. No organisation structure can compensate for a poor process but a well-designed process can get everyone working together, whichever part of the organisation they sit in. 

 

One powerful approach to sustained process improvement is Lean Thinking, as inspired by Deming and documented by Jones & Womack. The most satisfying thing is that the way you do it is unique to you - no one else has your customers, your services and your staff so only you can optimise your processes in the best possible way.  The journey starts with understanding the stakeholders of the organisation and their expectations (with a particular focus on customers), defining what they value, lining up the whole value-stream to deliver this on demand (smoothly without delay, waste or error) and then instituting a systematic process of continuous improvement.  Single-mindedly focusing on the needs of customers, it provides a range of tools to accelerate delivery, improve quality, reduce waste and foster innovation.  Dramatic improvements in all areas of a business should be expected – early wins followed by a steady stream of performance improvements, cost reductions and new ideas. 

 

You will get a flavour of what it means, and even make some early changes, during a five-day kick off event.  This action learning approach introduces Lean Thinking to a specific team or department, maps their end-to-end processes, generates remarkable new insights and enthuses the team to improve what they do. 

 

Involving everyone is a key facet of this philosophy and you will be amazed at how revolutionary it can feel to many people.  New ways of working can be challenging for some so our facilitation will support them through it.  The Lean philosophy and methods are refreshing in their simplicity but make a huge difference to an organisation over time.