Value is the critical starting point of Lean thinking. It is defined by the customer. It should be expressed in terms of a specific product or service. In short customer's needs a specific price at a specific time. Value is created by the producer.
From the customer's perspective, a producer exists only for the value of his product or service. Producer should provide the right product at the right price at the right time to satisfy customer's specific needs to be in the business. This is the very reason, producer should take a very conscious step to define the value. This is the most critical step in the Lean thinking.
As part of the workflow automation assignment, we provide a stage for our customer to revisit the value. This happens when we identify various steps to produce /deliver the product or service. Each and every step is looked from the stand point of adding value to the customer. Any such steps which is not adding value, it's ‘muda’ (waste). It should be eliminated.
We create a platform for our customers to revisit their processes. This exercise brings up a well defined documentation to the process. During this the hidden 'muda's are unearthed. This is the biggest value add to the whole process of workflow automation. We help our customer to identify and eliminate non-value added process steps, while we document and get ready for workflow automation.
Value stream is defined as the specific activities required to design, order and provide a specific product, from concept to launch, order to delivery, and raw material into the hands of the customer.
This is the second critical step in the Lean thinking process. When we do the end-to-end process mapping and start analyzing, we can see three types of activities. 1. Process steps that clearly adds value. 2. Process steps adding no value, but cannot be removed. 3. Process steps adding no value and can be removed. It is all about creating transparency. Value of automation could be effectively achieved by automating all the value added steps.
We document all the process steps as the starting point of workflow automation. A well prepared process map will throw out opportunities to explore further from the customer's value stand point. At this point you can take a deeper look at each and every process step and can determine, where it falls in the following three categories. 1. Value added. 2. No value add but needed. 3. No value add can be removed.
We, as part of the workflow automation effort, creates a podium for our customer to revisit the existing product/service delivery process and think about the actual value it creates to their customers. With the workflow automation effort, rather creating just the process automation, we help the customer to refine and eliminate the non-value added process steps, so that it can bring more business agility and success.
Creating flow is the most challenging step in the Lean thinking. You need to bring a continuous flow to the process steps. It should be seamless and should not be restricted with the 'departmental' and 'functional' thinking. This should help to move away from the batches and queue concepts.
Creating the flow is very important the customer's stand point. Flow is important to be more responsive in the ever changing customer expectations.
It is one of the hardest things to implement in Lean adoption. You need to undergo a thorough rearrangement of your existing setup. Which is not very easy, but it is possible. We can support you with the thinking practice of cross-functional teams. We can also help to create the right strategy for the transition to a Lean Enterprise.
Many a times this effort requires an external support. To look at the existing system from an external point of view without any bias. We can bring this value add.
Pull is defined as that no upstream should produce a goods or service until the customer downstream asks for it. To explain further, rather creating in batches and waiting to be consumed later, create only when it is ready to be consumed.
It is important to reduce the inventory. It also helps to respond to the customers exact requirements, rather anticipating.
An end-to-end, seamless workflow automation can bring agility to the organization's response to the customer's demand. We can build up the workflow automation for you to enable yourself to achieve this.
The Lean approach of identifying the value, mapping the value streams, and perfecting the flow are the value adds. We understand your business process and build the workflow automation solutions leveraging the Lean principles. This is the highest value add we bring to the table.
Building quality is a continual process. Any perfection is not final, always there is room for further improvement. The more and more you adopt the first four Lean principles, there emerges more and more impediments. So you require a perpetual look out for perfection in all of the product/service deliveries.
Achieving perfection is not a one time effort. As the time goes, once found perfection reduces it's value and effectiveness. So, you need to have a constant watch and monitoring. You need to take actions when the signals are emerged.
We create the workflow automation solutions leveraging the Lean principles. We set up various process measures to constantly watch the performance and monitor the process steps. The workflow automation system raises various alerts as and when there is a deviation. This will be the trigger to take the necessary action against the newly found impediment. This way you will be able to continuously monitor the process steps and be able to create value constantly.
Identifying the right measures and implement them to the right process steps is the biggest value add we bring to our workflow automation solutions. Automated alerts and escalations helps our customer's to take the appropriate actions when the impediments are raised.
