Some might think that lean is the same as any other continual improvement programs that they had previously experienced. In this article, I want to highlight the most important point about lean. This is the only thing that separate lean from all other improvement programs.
Historically, continual improvement programs look at improving steps in a process to make it better. In lean the main point is to eliminate uneeded steps. Here are two illustrations that I have put together to explain the point.
The first illustration is a typical business loan approval process that consists of 8 steps.
In this second illustration, 5 steps in the process were removed. The credit check and approval process were combined and the operation takes place in the branch and not at HQ. By doing this there are less information hold ups and faster processing time which eventually delights the customer. Loan processing time is reduced from 2-4 weeks to 1 day!
I hope these two illustrations can bring out the main point that lean is about eliminating “wasteful” steps.Please take note that these processes are for illustration purposes only and may not be applied in real life situation without proper process analysis.
Hope you find this article useful.