Lean Thinking Remains a Critical Business Concept

In today’s competitive economy maximizing customer value and minimizing operational waste is a necessity. The working term for this is lean. Organizations that are lean recognize what customers value and the ways in which to increase that value. Whether a product or service provider, they aim to do this with zero waste.

Rather than focusing on optimizing separate functional departments, lean thinking focuses on improving the organization in a more holistic manner: how products and services flow through the the entire value stream. Consequently, an organization that undergoes lean transformation eliminates the waste of unnecessary labor and space within that stream. Beyond the savings achieved with such changes, organizations are subsequently much more flexible in meeting changing customer desires.

Lean thinking found initial success in many manufacturing organizations during the late 1980s (most notably through the Toyota production system). Unlike a new technology or cost reduction program, lean thinking focus is long-term, strategic and operational. As such, eventually service organizations (even governments) started to translate lean thinking for their own processes.

Getting rid of waste requires discerning what is essential and nonessential work with regard to running a viable business. Obviously, eliminating nonessential waste should be the first priority. It constitutes work that the customer does not value and what the business does not require to remain viable. Necessary essential work, the non-value adding work that is required for a company to remain viable, should be reduced when necessary. How do lean businesses do this?

Initiating lean thinking involves a process called value stream mapping. A value stream (as referenced above) is simply the sequence of activities involved to produce or deliver a good or service. Examples include order processing, design, and raw material conversion. In contrast to viewing an organization as a series of function-based silos (Human Resources, Purchasing, Finance, etc), value stream mapping creates a bird’s-eye view of the organization’s entire work system. In all, value stream mapping reveals the organization’s information flow and workflow alongside a summary timeline. The mapping reveals what is in place with respect to these three components, not how they work.

By mapping an organization’s current state operations, opportunities to operationalize lean thinking become readily apparent. Ideally, a team of department leaders from across the organization meet to generate ideas for improvements. Eventually, a “future state” map of operations takes place. Once lean thinking ideas are agreed upon, a company's transformation plan is produced in league with a leadership sponsor. Such a plan is the first step toward creating a culture of continuous improvement.

Make Sure Your Company's Website Doesn't Disappoint!

The fiasco that is HealthCare.gov is known far and wide now. Contractors who did the design and coding have found themselves answering questions from Congress, doing their best to recover from one of a handful of governmental flubs in recent history. Try to bring America into a new era of health care coverage and then drop the ball this hard--it's going to be difficult to recover from. But unlike a few weeks ago, we're not here to talk about health insurance for your small business or mistakes that the federal government has made: We're here to talk about the value of having a strong website.

You might be asking, "What makes a website strong?" Well, just like a new building, the most important thing is a solid infrastructure. This means making sure that there is no extraneous code; this means making sure that each and every link is unbroken; this means making sure that everything you want visitors to see and know is accessible. Each of these things can be easily overlooked by amateur website designers, making your site potentially unstable. Knowing what a company needs for its online presence is essential and experienced players are more likely to get it right on the first try. Once you have a reliable base, it's time to bring value to your site. This is easily done by generating quality content.

Remember how I mentioned keeping the important things accessible? This is essential both when developing code and content. If you ramble on your website, it's likely that potential customers (assuming you're looking to garner more) will leave--wordy pages can cause a website visitor to quickly jump ship. These visitors are looking for the vital information they are either already seeking or do not know that they need to know yet. So give them the information they want--usually things like your product or service, your location, your hours, and your contact information--as well as a reason to stay by posting content that is both interesting and relevant.

Imagine how much business these pandas could bring
you! | Source: Crochet Dreamz

For instance, if you are a grocery store, you could post recipes and dinner ideas, provided that you stock all of the ingredients. Doing small things like this can bring visitors and customers back to your website and back to your store over and over again--we all know that repeat business is a good sign for a company. Obviously, this means making a habit of posting such content. Customers often look to the companies they support for predictability, so this means being regular about such updates. If you put up a blog post with a recipe on Monday, make sure you do it every Monday. Or if you have a store that sells crafts and decide to give your readers the directions to crochet a cute animal-themed hat, perhaps make a themed day of the week a la Instagram (I'm looking at you #tbt also known as Throwback Thursday, when a users post old picture of themselves). Whatever your business is, regular content is needed to refresh your website. Not only does it give customers a reason to visit again, it also lends legitimacy to your search engine ranking by showing that your site is active.