Lean Office Simulation

Increasing efficiency in offices

In an increasingly competitive market, it becomes indispensable to have lean, effective and responsive processes and people striving for continuous improvement and the pursuit of customer value.

The “offices” of every organisation are criss-crossed by processes in which waste often lurks, the removal of which is a powerful lever of efficiency and service. Processes are therefore the starting point for building lean offices, because, as W.E. Deming said, “Only in 6% of cases where something goes wrong, the cause can be directly assigned to a person. In the other 94% of cases, it is due to the system in which the person is operating.”

La LOS (Lean Office Simulation) is a unique experiential simulation that allows, through practical experimentation, to:

Understand the principles of Lean Thinking and their applicability especially in the office environment.

Recognise the processes running through the different business functions and develop internal customer focus.

Experience the use of the most important process mapping tools.

Learn to recognise waste and focus on customer value.

Practice working in teams to find solutions.

Redesign an office process according to lean principles.

Create engagement so that the lean approach guides everyday activities.

By depicting the typical scenario of office work and retracing the issues that really happen in everyday life, the main concepts behind Lean Thinking are transferred and immediately tested, from identifying value and reducing waste to involving everyone in the implementation of continuous improvement.

Impersonating employees of a company as in a real role-playing game, participants will have to:

VALUE

Define the process and the problem to be solved.
Identify critical customer requirements (internal and external).

MAP

Measure processes and interpreting the measurements made.

FLOW

Analyse the process variation, the value stream and identify the root causes.
Work as a team to design improvements;

PERFECTION

Develop, test and implement solutions and then validate the improved process.

Lean Office Simulation enables the introduction of some typical concepts of the Lean philosophy, such as:

Identification of non-value added phases
Elimination of sources of waste,
as well as methodologies for problem setting, problem solving and the implementation of rapid improvements (quick wins).

Participants will be able to compare the disciplined and focused approach of continuous improvement against the 'bad habits' that too often frustrate their efforts in the day-to-day running of projects.

Why?

To make real and “tangible” what the term Lean Office means to managers and employees.
To learn, through practice, how to master the main analysis and implementation tools for setting up a lean office.
To make evident and measurable any waste in processes within the offices, which would otherwise be difficult to detect.
To experience how Lean can foster teamwork and make working in offices more motivating.
To achieve greater awareness of the main organisational levers that make a transactional process effective, efficient and therefore competitive.