The Roadblocks Of A Lean Office

What are some of the issues you see facing your office? Lean manufacturing is a method that a lot of companies are using in every industry as it does aid in reducing defects and helps to organize the company overall. Having a system that makes it easier to reduce product defects and to be able to create an organized office is one that will be productive and one that people will enjoy working for. Implementing lean can come with it's fair share of obstacles as well because people often resist change and they have a hard time being able to understand it and accepting it as the new method of doing things.

With implementation of a lean office, you will end up with the following 3 things:
- Physical transformations of the company such as re-arrangement of the equipment you have in your facility. Some people move around their desks where others will just change the way people come in and out of the office. There are always physical barriers that are in the way that can cause a great deal of issues for the company and you need to be able to change these issues so you don't end up hurting the overall productivity of your office. People can easily waste a lot of time if they have to get up and search around for things that they need to do their jobs. You also have a lot of time wasted just from your staff coming to work and trying to find their way to their desk as they have so much clutter and things to get around.
- Problem solving. When you turn to lean, everyone within the company will now become a person that works on solving problems. You need to be able to train your employees so they all know what they should do to assist in solving problems that happen. Employing them to do this on their own will decrease their dependency on you all the time. This makes it nicer for the company as everyone has the confidence to think on their toes and everyone has a critical role in the success of the company. Make sure you are noticing when you have employees that do make large strides to help the company so they can see that you are appreciative of their hard work. This is a big part of helping them to have confidence and to creating a lean office.
- Information management. With this area you will need to have clear lines of information for the company so everyone has been properly trained but also so that everyone knows how a product starts and how it goes along the line. They all need to be able to understand the workings of the company in order to keep the flow of information traveling in the right direction and to help the company to become successful and productive.Clear maps of the flow of information can help your employees to see how the information goes through the company and it helps them to know where they need to go when there is a question or something else they need to deal with.

A lean office is one that can be quite productive but you need to have employees that are willing to adopt and accept it. When you have a staff that is understanding and ready to accept the changes that you have implemented you will see an increase in production.

Make sure everyone at the company has a role in the lean office. You need to get them all involved or you will lose their respect and they may not have as much confidence in themselves as well because they feel like you do not trust them.