Value Stream Management for Lean Office—A Case Study

This paper presents a look at the concept of Lean Manufacturing as applied to the office environment. Lean Manufacturing, which is often referred to as Lean, is a philosophy of manufacturing process improvement through the elimination of waste. As Lean developed since its origins in the automobile industry, it has been extended to apply to various enterprises and organizations, and has achieved a renowned reputation for reducing waste while adding value to products and services. Lean has also been applied in the office environment; however, participants in the implementation of Lean Office face more difficulties because of higher variation in office processes, less foundation information for participants, and lack of references in literature. This paper addresses these issues by proposing, a systematic procedure for conducting Lean Office techniques, along with a case study at a local company. The case study demonstrates a step by step procedure to help more participants in Lean Office understand its benefits and how to get started.