Lean - The Standardised Office

In the Standardised Office everybody goes about their work the same way.

Why is this important?

Because if everybody does the work the same way

• the end result will be the same – the customer experiences consistent quality
• work is completed in the same amount of time – delivery is more regular
• you can work out more accurately how many people you need – planning improves
• you establish an expectation of what should be achieved – performance can be monitored

There are two steps to creating a Standardised Office

1. decide how you get things done
2. make sure everybody knows how to get things done

The steps you take to go from an INPUT to an OUTCOME are the PROCESS.

So when you decide the best way to do a job, you define the INPUT, you define the PROCESS & you define the OUTCOME.

Use a group of people, good, new and ignorant, to decide the best current way of doing each important task

Having a defined current best way of doing something is of course completely useless unless people use it. We must communicate the new way of working to the people who will use it.

Now that you have standard operation you can

• establish reasonable expectations for performance (the quality of outcome and the time it takes ) for individuals, teams and the office as a whole
• monitor performance over time
• predict more accurately how long work will take
• easily check that people are working correctly
• ensure that performance is repeatable & sustainable