Value Stream Management for Lean Office—A Case Study

Joseph C. Chen, Ronald A. Cox

College of Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, USA.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology, Bradley University, Peoria, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ajibm.2012.22004                

Abstract

This paper presents a look at the concept of Lean Manufacturing as applied to the office environment. Lean Manufac- turing, which is often referred to as Lean, is a philosophy of manufacturing process improvement through the elimina- tion of waste. As Lean developed since its origins in the automobile industry, it has been extended to apply to various enterprises and organizations, and has achieved a renowned reputation for reducing waste while adding value to prod- ucts and services. Lean has also been applied in the office environment; however, participants in the implementation of Lean Office face more difficulties because of higher variation in office processes, less foundation information for par- ticipants, and lack of references in literature. This paper addresses these issues by proposing, a systematic proce-dure for conducting Lean Office techniques, along with a case study at a local company. The case study demonstrates a step by step procedure to help more participants in Lean Office understand its benefits and how to get started.

Keywords

Lean Manufacturing; Lean Office; Value Stream Mapping; Kaizen; Kanban

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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