Latest Articles
- Information – an Office’s Gold
As America moves to service based industries the raw materials needed to bring a service or product to market is information. This is the “gold” in an office. With today’s technology we are able to collect, measure and quantify our leads and customers. The question then becomes what do we do with that information?
- BPs Lack of Seeing the Big Picture
No matter what side of the political fence you fall, BP failed to take the proper quality control measures. As the weeks pass more information is coming to light how the organization cut corners with safety to keep costs down. Safety is not the place to take short cuts. In the long run this can cost you thousands of dollars and possibly your business. In BP’s case it is running in the billions not to mention what it is doing for their stock value. The ramification of poor quality control is costly. So how could a corporation
- Make Your Bottom Line Grow
No matter what size your organization doing things as efficiently as possible is not only ideal it is necessary in the new world economy. One area that can be significantly improved is the office. In fact, 60 to 80% of costs associated with providing a service or product to market is administrative. If you were able to reduce these by one third how much could you increase your cash flow?
- Proper Planning Can Ensure Success
Planning is the backbone of success. Not doing it can cost thousands of dollars, man hours and resources. Proper planning can save you money, increase your cash flow and help fulfill your mission. Here is a simple tool to aid in ensuring your success.
- Working Between Departments Means Faster Cash Flow
When you look at a traditional organizational chart it has silos which contain various departments and the people overseeing and working in those departments. In today’s business climate where information is your company’s gold this can be troublesome. Why, because the right hand may not know what the left hand is doing. We have all [...]
Dynamic Workspace Planning
When we talk about waste in Lean it comes in many forms. How an office is laid out can contribute considerably to any number of wastes including motion, waiting and travel. Just by adjusting placement of people and equipment the productivity of an organization can be increased dramatically.
One very revolutionary idea in Lean Office is called work cells. This is juxtaposition with the traditional layout of an office. Usually in a traditional office the departments are separated from each other and communication can take hours if not up to days to resolve a single question or issue. By having work cells, people from different departments sit in a common area which allows them to immediate resolve problems, questions, etc. when they arise. The staff just has to turn their chair around and say excuse me.
We assist our clients with maximizing layout of equipment, furniture and people so that these factors contribute to overall productivity. The two pictures below are examples of how simple placement can make a difference in effective communication and transfer of valuable information. We work with our clients to develop a workspace that takes into consideration an organization’s resources and culture all while maximizing productivity.
What is Waste in an Office?
*Diagram provided by The Lean Store - Lean Office Training Set