Lean Front Office

Dan Donarski, Director of Technology Services   email | bio
April 2010

Few companies focus on improving office work-flow as much as they do manufacturing processes. But lean standards do address business process inefficiencies and, if enacted, can transform a front office into a "lean machine." The advantages of implementing a lean front office include: elimination of duplicate work and manual processing, increased staff availability, improved order-to-cash processing and effective technology utilization with integrated controls.

An eye opening endeavor to assist in this exercise can be a work-flow processing review, where the front-office processes are deciphered and transformed into a visual block-flow diagram. From this, visual and descriptive narrative bottlenecks and inefficient data processing techniques become evident. Manual, redundant processing steps can be identified. Steps where data is collected and paperwork generated without specific requirements can be eliminated, and steps with delayed processing can be redesigned. As a critical component of this process review, the information technology utilized is also analyzed and combined with the process diagram to create an overlay for gap analysis.

From this complete processing and technology picture, gaps where the capability to integrate enhanced technology in order to increase processing efficiencies can be identified. Technologies like document management, integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence - once price prohibitive for small and midsized manufacturers - are now affordable and can significantly streamline work-flow processes.

For more information about lean front office and technology integration, please contact Dan Donarski (262/754-9400).