Lean Training: How Eliminating Waste Improves the Odds of Success

Every company experiences some type of waste. Some can be direct, like when employees spend company time and resources managing their personal business. Other types are harder to identify and, possibly, harder to correct. This is the type of waste that arises from people that are not taught the most cost-effective processes when unnecessary repetition happens or product quality is insufficient. To reach the highest level of success, every company must identify and address these problems in their own workplace.

Why Lean Training? Let’s Discuss The Cost of Waste

Waste is hard to put an exact price on because it is so easy to hide. Extra raw materials and utilities can be calculated, but wasted time is more difficult to identify. Time spent filing identical documents or procedures forcing clients to wait for responses that should have been instant are just general and minor examples of the ways waste occurs. All of these instances can reduce the amount of product made or reduce how many clients can be seen in a day.

In many businesses, it prevents the company from paying its employees more or stops them from expanding. In extreme cases, it can bankrupt companies because they may be unable to compete with others who operate in a more streamlined manner.

Training That Helps

Lean training enables businesses to learn time-saving methods that are specific to their industry. By learning these methods, they can provide better service to their clients and keep costs low. Reduced costs mean more profits, but it can also mean having more flexibility in how services or products are priced. This increases the ability of the company to be more competitive, afford more advertising, and devote additional funds to marketing and product research, putting them in a position to advance further in the future.

Custom Designed Solutions

A Lean training course is not a class that is the same for each company or industry. Every course is adjusted to meet the specific needs of the individual organization. The tips and education provided are tailored to who is taking the course. Members of management and business owners are able to look for ways to improve how their time is spent as well as how they can be more effective at reducing waste throughout the company. They leave the course able to review how work is handled on a day-to-day basis and create solutions for problem areas.

Problem-solving skills are taught so every student learns how to adapt what they have learned to individual circumstances throughout their career.

Controlling Company-Wide Waste

Waste is not just an administrative issue. It is a problem in every part of some companies, and manufacturing is a key area where there is often excessive loss due to controllable waste. Lean manufacturing course lessons teach participants to identify where waste is occurring and methods for addressing it. In addition, it also teaches people how to avoid wasting time on matters that do not offer adequate rewards for the effort.

These classes break down the true cost of waste in this environment and how the waste affects everything from operating costs to the value of the final product.

Example of Course Outlines

A Lean training course outline often varies according to the needs of the business, but will typically include some key features. It begins with an explanation of lean practices, explaining why they are important and how it can be determined if a business could benefit from them. Information about common types of waste in specific industries is explained, with solutions for how these problems can be managed provided. The course will teach how to create and then implement a plan as well as how to gauge its success once it is in place.

Lean six sigma is a beneficial and proven program of Lean training that offers basic, intermediary and executive level techniques that allow companies to fine-tune their procedures and skills. Think Perform uses these methods to involve every employee in the lean process. Their approach is not limited to just the leaders of an organization but realizes that everyone plays a role and must be fully educated about how important their part is to the company as a whole.

By encouraging collaboration between all levels, companies become more focused and organized units, capable of working together to discover even more solutions.

Building a lean corporation takes teamwork, effort, and dedication. When it is successful, the company will be able to achieve goals and reach profit margins they may have never thought possible. Clients are treated with more respect and provided better, more efficient service.

Once the waste has been addressed, employees often discover their work is less stressful and demanding because they are no longer repeating tasks or performing “busy work” that has no real purpose.