Author(s)

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.

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.

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

Chen, J. and Cox, R. (2012) Value Stream Management for Lean Office—A Case Study. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2, 17-29. doi: 10.4236/ajibm.2012.22004.