Lean management is all about waste elimination and waste is whatever time, effort and money you put in that your customers will not pay for it. In other words, waste is any activity that costs you but adds no value to your customers. Most big companies are hiring consultants to assist them in identifying and reducing waste in their business processes, but waste elimination is crucial for small-medium businesses too as they don't have much resources to squander.
According to lean principles, there are 8 major waste categories in business processes that are listed below with examples for a restaurant business:
1 - Defect (bad product): Customer doesn't get what is ordered
2- Excess processing: Time spent on verifying an order on the phone with the customer
3- Overproduction: Leftover foods that will be thrown out
4- Waiting time: The time a customer spends in line for food ordering when staff are preparing food
5- Inventory: Excessive food supplies that limit the space and may expire
6- Moving: Improper storage of material causing too much material movement
7- Motion: Improper layout of equipment that requires too much back and forth movement for the staff
8- Non-Utilized Talent: Ignoring staff capabilities in adding values
Think of a Mobile App with an online ordering feature whereby customers can easily pick what they look for with no defect in order taking and no order verification time on the phone so no excess processing. This will also help to get advanced orders up to 7 days ahead to prevent overproduction and Inventory. In addition, customers can order the food on an iPad kiosk on counter rather than waiting for a staff to take their orders; this will reduce waiting time for the customer and minimize staff motion. By cutting down non-value added staff times, management can utilize staff talent to review data analytics on Mobile App dashboard and monitor customers behavior and send special offers through mobile push notifications.
This is just one simple example of how lean management and digital solutions can help today's businesses to flourish.
BOME Solutions offer cost effective digital solutions built for small/medium businesses to make them lean and capable of competing with big players in local market.
Book a free consultation meeting now to know more about lean opportunities.