Trending Lean management Practices to Mitigate Waste

By CIOReview | Wednesday, June 12, 2019

FREMONT, CA: Lean project management includes the utilization of lean theories such as lean thinking, lean construction and lean manufacturing to project management. It is rooted in cost-saving manufacturing methodologies. The optimum purpose of this project is to mitigate waste. Most of the organizations have adopted lean principles into their processes but is best suited toward physical manufacturing, engineering and related industries. Lean project management principles can be beneficial in optimizing daily operations regardless of company size. Five core principles guide this management thinking for project managers.

• Identify Value

It is very vital to define the value of a given product. The amount of value a finished product will generate must be assessed accurately before beginning any project. Customer expectations are always high, and they should be given, the ultimate priority. Lean teams can estimate how much a customer might want to pay for a product on related data points. The goal is to eliminate all waste in every process.

• Mapping Value Stream

The end goal of the project is value. If the value is established as a specific endpoint, mapping the way to value stream is secure. Every step involved in getting to the end product is part of the value stream. One of the most popular ways to map value streams is Kanban. Using Kanban flowcharts, managers can set up visual aids for value streams. After this process, lean managers can quickly identify waste and inefficiencies with the process, allowing them to enhance these issues swiftly.

• Creating Flow

Project managers can spot debris by mapping the value stream. The tasks that are not done timely generate more waste. Lean project managers can create the optimal flow of activities by analyzing the map and removing debris. Lean project managers check for possible delays, and if there are any inefficiencies present, tasks have to be reordered. Every step should flow into the other.

• Employ-pull Approach

Many organizations use a push approach in anticipation of demand. Lean organizations employ a pull approach. With the pull approach, production increases as demand increases. Exceptionally efficient dissemination of information and extremely accurate market research is required for the pull approach. The processes should be streamlined to ramp up production to meet demand.

• Seeking Perfection

Lean management is about constant improvement and requires a thoughtful approach to every action. A part of corporate culture should be optimization. All the members of a company should work toward removing waste and delivering quality. There is room for improvement always in lean organizations.

Lean organizations are removing waste and the project managers ensure that activities within the organization without interruption flow accurately. The identifying value indicates to find out the influence of the product and how much a customer will pay for it. Market data is collected during development and these data points drive production.