So, what exactly is Lean? Lean is an ideology based on methods, tools, and values. It is about maximizing customer value and minimizing resource waste within the business. The primary purpose of Lean is to implement processes that streamline the organization and eliminate factors that do not provide an end value to the customer. This is to trim down high costs and simplify cumbersome processes.

This blog post will go through tips and approaches to succeed with Lean.

September 6, 2024

What to consider?

Finding concrete methods or magic approaches to succeed with Lean in organizations is challenging. However, here we have collected some general tips you can take advantage of to facilitate the work:

1. Anchor the Lean project By working in workshops to map your processes, you will get as representative a picture as possible of the current and desired situations. Invite your employees, encourage conversations, and let different voices be heard. This collaborative approach will facilitate the change as everyone becomes part of it.
2. Involve the highest Management To facilitate the implementation of Lean, top management needs to be aware of the need for change and its implications. Changes can affect everything from culture and management structure to behaviors.
3. Communicate the change Communicating the change within the organization is a key to success. To reduce resistance to the change, all employees must know why you are doing it, what it results in, and what it will mean. Make sure that the work and the change are transparent and communicated.
4. Softwares as support Last but not least, it is important to have a tool that is easy to work with in workshops and also helps us structure and conduct analysis, implement changes, and facilitate communication of the changes. Make sure you use the right tool to facilitate Lean work.

1. Where to start? Map your processes!

To start changing ingrained ways of working in the business, you first need to examine the business’s main, core, or support processes. How is it done today? It’s about getting a clear and representative picture of how things look today. By mapping our processes, we get a clear starting point in Lean work.

2. Identify Bottlenecks

After mapping the processes, we need to identify problems, risks, and opportunities that currently exist. We can find more effective solutions by questioning the existing working methods and procedures.

• What final value does this activity deliver to the customer?
• How can we shorten lead times here?
• Is there a better way to manage this part of the process?

Working on these issues in workshops opens up dialogue. It brings forward several people’s views that become valuable parts of optimizing the processes. More people, their thoughts, and ideas also create a more grounded picture of the organization’s processes and how they can be improved.

3. Optimize your processes through Lean

Once all the problems, risks, and opportunities are identified, it’s a matter of prioritizing which ones to tackle to achieve improvement. Seize the opportunities to improve the process and eliminate the bottlenecks that exist. The result is a process jointly created by highlighting improvement actions and priorities – an optimized process.