No doubt you are familiar with the term 'Lean'. It's become a popular buzzword for change in today's corporate culture.

The creation of Lean Manufacturing is generally credited to Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota production executive, in an effort to reduce waste and improve quality.

And today, Lean Management techniques and principles are quite widely used throughout the Manufacturing industry. You may have heard Japanese terms like Kaisen, Kanban & Muda. This isn't a secret key to unlock the mysteries of Lean, they simply mean Continuous Improvement, Pull systems & Non value-added work. These are terms used to convey the ideas of Lean thinking.

But we are often asked how a process improvement technique established specifically for manufacturing can be adapted for white collar work like Administration, Contact Centres and Document Management Centres.

The truth is that 'Lean' is simply a way to reduce waste (often called Muda) using an approach that centres around creating value for your customers. The Lean approach centres around 5 categories:

• Value
• Value Stream
• Flow
• Pull
• Perfection