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WHAT IS LEAN?
Lean Thinking is a management philosophy for organising a business around what Your Customers Value. See our Testimonials for the results our customers have achieved by starting to implement the main pillars of the techniques.You may have come across lean as being an improvement programmes based on 5S, OEE, Control Charts, Visual Management etc; these are the tools of lean (of which there are numerous), they are not "lean thinking".
There are 5 principles to Lean Thinking;
Only Customers can place a VALUE on the SOLUTIONS (products/services) an organisation provides.
Companies should understand every activity in the processes they use and whether these add VALUE to the Customer; aiming to remove those activities & processes that don't add value.* this is the part of the process where we remove the "7 Hidden Wastes"
Businesses should organise around the SOLUTIONS valued by the CUSTOMERS; breaking through the functional and departmental barriers to create flow..
Every process should only be operated when required ("PULLED") by THE CUSTOMER, not ("PUSHED") when the company desires or targets dictate.
An Organisation should strive to continuously improve and refine the VALUE its SOLUTIONS deliver to its CUSTOMER.
Lean is often referred to in terms of "Lean Manufacturing" and the removal of waste from a production process and has been documented as such since the early 1990's. Recently lean has been applied to the operations departments of service, public sector and not-for-profit organisations.
Who else uses traditional “Lean Techniques”?
Many companies employ, either directly or through contracts, "lean consultants". Companies who use lean (or six sigma) techniques includes;
Toyota, Masterfoods, IBM, Tesco, Caterpillar, New Balance,GE, Johnson & Johnson, NHS, Rolls Royce, Arla Foods, 3M as well as the “Big Four” High Street retail banks in the UK.
The majority of companies focus their lean effort on the operation and distribution parts of their organisations.
ResQ are unique in that they employ experts in the application of lean thinking in areas of the organisation including Sales, Marketing and Finance. ResQ are experts in helping YOU understand how lean thinking can be applied across the whole of an organisation.This meant taking the five principles of lean, our wide reaching experience and challenging how lean thinking could be applied in marketing, sales, finance, HR etc, not just in operations.
Our experience means we don't just take the recognised tools of lean from operations i.e. 5S, OEE, Workflow balancing, control charts etc and just apply them to an office environment.
ResQ have developed unique solutions to identify and implement the improvements possible across an organisation via two main areas;
Focusing on these two areas, Marketing (Sales) and Finance enables ResQ to help companies to cut across the department budgets, targets and barriers that often constrain improvement.
As well as being experienced in the application of lean tools in operational departments.
Where we have used these principles they have
proved extremely positive both in establishing and embedding
improvement programmes and changing the culture or organisations.
Companies who have been following these principles for sometime are
reluctant to share or publish their practices, they are the main
drivers behind growth. Through our improvement experiences in
marketing, operations, sales and finance departments we have been able
to understand these drivers.
If you want to read about the success of true "lean" then visit the pages below;
©2009 ResQ Management Resources Ltd. Reg No. 558 1973 Reg Office: 25 East Parade, York, YO31 7YB.