Lean for Service

How to deploy LEAN in a service environment

For an organization which is only into delivering a bunch of services, that are intangible for measurement, most of the times, Voice of customer (VOC) plays a major role. The rationale behind this is that, the need of the customer, which are mostly expectations, will keep on changing from time to time. Hence the game is about matching up your services and speed, to match your customer’s expectations, for which a right understanding of those expectations plays a major role. Many a time companies fail in gauging the lead time right in such cases. The actual lead time may not end at the time the service is delivered but may only when the customer attains the full benefit of the service provided.

We at ImpTek believe that, a client organization will benefit only if the principles we preach are deployed practically and physically on the production floor or the areas of operation. Extensive trainings are a waste of time and effort and the return on investment is always ambiguous. According to the ImpTek Lean philosophy, a company to be called “transformed” should have achieved a bare minimum of:

End to End lead time between 50 to 60 percent of Industry average
Inventory turns greater than 24 times a year
Productivity up by minimum of 2% every quarter
Profit growth rate of 2 to 4 times of industry average
Excellent responsiveness to market requirement
Time to market for new products less than half of Industrial average.

At this juncture, ImpTek rolls out its exclusive deployment philosophy based on the time-tested, proven and well known Kaizen approach. Kaizen is a Japanese word that stands for improvement and can also be understood as continuous improvement. In other words it is 'bias for action' philosophy

The ImpTek kaizen strategy:

A typical Lean deployment assignment starts with a Value Stream mapping exercise, which is nothing but a comprehensive on-site Business transformation assessment of the value chain under consideration. Normally, it is a one week activity but can vary according to the size of the company and the complexity of the value stream. The first stage of value stream mapping is establishing the Current state map, which is a depiction of both material and information flow, through the value chain with all allied operational and systemic parameters. Once this is done, a future state map is created considering the business goals of the organization and the interests of various stake holders. At the last phase of this exercise, the gap between the current state and future state are identified and the same are converted into Kaizen Projects.

ImpTek rolls out a structured five day charter for a Kaizen event, at the end of which tangible physical results are assured.

We very well understand that the business complexities and needs vary from company to company and industry to industry. Hence we have modeled specialized Kaizen events to cater to various industrial segments like Manufacturing, Process, Service, Retail, and IT/ITES. We also offer these as customized solutions based on the needs of the individual organization and sensibilities.

Imptek approach for a Service organizaton

For an organization that is into providing service to its customers the ideal goal of deploying LEAN should be:

Increase the responsiveness to the customer
Increase the quality level of the service
Reduce the cost for providing the service

Here ImpTek makes use of a unique form of dynamic takt time to excel the expectations of the customer. The Kaizen events for service are mostly from the Transactional Kaizen events, which are week long events that would enable you to minimize the number of hand-offs and decision points and also to eliminate convolutions. You will also be benefited by way of reduced documentation and increased focus on output rather than on process.

In most of the service organizations, the output of the activity, which is the service provided, has an immediate and direct impact on the end customer and hence the service providers spend a lot of time to ensure that the processes are capable to deliver on time. But many a time these companies fail to understand the importance of Standard operations, which will ultimately lead them to customer dissatisfaction in spite of having world-class processes. Standard operations help you in minimizing the person to person variation in the delivery of a service and reduces the complexities and amount of documentation involved.

Transactional kaizens can also help you in streamlining your support functions, which will reduce you lead time for service delivery and also help you in increasing your customer satisfaction index.

Some of the examples in this direction can be

The Time taken for baggage screening in airlines industry
The time taken by room service and house keeping departments to deliver food beverages and goods in a hotel
The time lost when a demand draft travels from one desk to another inside a bank for signatures when it is being processed
Time taken by HR department in a BPO for identifying and recruiting the right resources and the time lost before they are fully productive.

Going forward, production kaizen events like maintenance kaizens and House keeping events using Break through 5Swill help you in increasing your customer satisfaction enormously.

Imptek also offers a rare suite of spot kaizens that will improve the ergonomic aspects of your floor lay out, there by reducing the fatigue and strain levels of people which will ultimately enhance their productivity.

Energy Kaizens will also help service organizations in saving money and reducing the waste they throw out into the external environment.

Once the waste in the existing system is fully done away with we can help you in designing prudent delivery systems for future service deliveries using agile and flexible process design methodologies of lean. The next step will be to establish the skill matrix of your employees and make them multi skilled to perform any operation that is a part of the value chain.

Lean Enterprise – The future where you would like to be..

Once you set your own house in order, to reap more benefits, you need to expand the scope of your value chain. Take the value chain out of the four walls of your premises, by including your customers and suppliers into it. The ideal way is to demonstrate your achievements and capabilities to them and prompt them to become lean. You will get the full benefits of you being Lean only when your suppliers and customers are also behaving in the same manner. ImpTek has a proven and systematic set of Lean based supplier development tools

The major characteristics of a responsible Lean enterprise can be laid sown as follows:

Inventory turns of minimum 36 times or more a year
Capable to deliver any product mix in every delivery pitch
End to end lead time less than 50% of Industry average
Productivity going up by a minimum of 2% every quarter
Profits grow at the double the rate of turnover growth
Time from concept to market for new products less than half of industry average
100% uptime for equipments
Production totally freed up from the clutches of forecasting and made more realistic based on real time customer demand

How to get there?

As is the case in any major improvement initiative, the success of Lean implementation depends on the commitment of the Top management. The first and the foremost step is to identify a full time value stream manager and a team to work with him/her. Lean implementation has to be taken as a Leading from the front initiative, where by the top management will demonstrate the commitment through their actions. The next important step is the value stream mapping. You need to identify the appropriate and right product family for this exercise. During the VSM process care need to be taken to ensure that, the data collected are real and all corners are covered. While taking up Kaizen projects, you need to make sure that, you start with the core line function operation than a supporting function. Making the right implementation plan and scheduling the events without affecting the production are also pivotal for a successful lean deployment. Sustaining the gains are as important as achieving them and hence you need to ensure that the people concerned are trained to the appropriate levels.

Above all we need to understand the sensibilities of the people around and take them into confidence. The barriers of attitude are the toughest to overcome and this can be achieved only through a systematic change management approach. A lean deployment will become fully successful and bear the real fruits only if seen as a cultural initiative. Hence a structured culture change initiative need to be in place which goes hand in hand with the Lean implementation.

A successful business model.

A successful business model is one that keeps all the major stake holders of your business namely your customers, your employees, your business partners and your share holders smiling and making considerable healthy profits. Hence ImpTek rolls out a consulting model that perfectly aligns the objectives of Lean to the expectations of your stake holders, there by making you a profitable enterprise.

Stake-Holders' Expectation Matrix
CUSTOMER	Quality	Price	Delivery
EMPLOYEE	Safety	Remuneration	Pride
BUSINESS PARTNER	Long term interest	Payments	Good will
SHARE HOLDER	Profits	R O I	On time pay backs

The ImpTek Business-Consulting Model.

From the expectation matrix, try improvising the green boxes and you will understand that the rest of them will automatically fall in place. In the current market, where prices are squeezed day by day, the only way to cope-up is by reducing your cost of operation. Hence or we strongly recommend that, your operational parameters that you monitor should be

Quality	Cost
Delivery	Safety

Hence we recommend that Lean (and for that reason, any break through initiative that you undertake) should be monitored and the results be measured using the above or their direct derivatives as the yard sticks. We call this as the ‘Q-C-D-S’ matrix and our Unique Business consulting model aligns the classical lean deployment philosophy to this.

This Sate of the art model will definitely take you to new heights in business with high profits, which should be used for strategic growth.