What Lean Office is
Lean Office is the application of Lean Manufacturing principles to administrative processes: approvals, document flow, customer service, invoicing. The product isn't physical, but the flow of information runs into the same kinds of waste as a shop floor.
The most common waste in administrative processes
Waiting for approval
Documents sitting idle waiting for someone's signature or sign-off, sometimes for days.
Rework from incomplete information
Forms bounced back for correction because a field was missed the first time.
Excess emails and meetings
Communication that eats time without producing a decision or real progress.
Duplicate data entry
The same information typed into multiple systems that don't talk to each other.
An approval process with 6 signatures isn't rigorous — it's 5 extra chances for something to wait unnecessarily.
Lean tools that work well in an office
Value Stream Mapping works just as well for a credit approval process as it does for an assembly line. Adapted Kanban boards (now popularized in digital task-management tools) help visualize work in progress and limit how many tasks any one person is juggling at once.
Want to apply value stream mapping to an administrative process?
Read the complete VSM guide.
Read the article
About the author
Lean Manufacturing & Behavioral Management Specialist
Over 20 years in the automotive and metalworking industries (GM and Dana), Lean Manufacturing practitioner since 2006. SENAI instructor and mentor in Brazil’s Brasil Mais Produtivo program, delivering consulting, training and audits for 50+ companies, combining quality, productivity and people development.