The complete lean-enterprise value stream mapping for administrative and office processes, edited by B.Keyte and D.Locher

The Complete Lean Enterprise – Value Stream Mapping for Administrative and Office Processes, edited by B. Keyte and D. Locher, is a very useful tool for the application of lean thinking topics in the office environment. Since the creation of value for the customer represents the key for the competitiveness of companies, the analysis of the value stream aiming towards the elimination of non-added value activities and waste must be the main objective for the entire enterprise. Until now the focus of waste elimination has been placed on manufacturing operations. The presence of waste also in office activities and in information management leads to the necessity to introduce lean concepts in both production and non-production areas. The difficulty in seeing the “office waste” and the high contribution to the increase in productivity that the elimination of this kind of waste could bring to the entire enterprise make the introduction of an efficacy instrument for the application of value stream analysis urgent, also outside the shop floor activities. This book provides an innovative contribution for the application of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) in non-production areas and it provides a basis for VSM in information management. It is an arrangement of the lean tools and techniques explained in Learning to See (1999), designed for the production environment, for application within the office, underling the differences between the two application fields.