American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2012, 2, 17-29

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2012.22004 Published Online April 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ajibm)

17

Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

Joseph C. Chen1, Ronald A. Cox2
1
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology, Bradley University, Peoria, USA; 2College of Engineering,
Iowa State University, Ames, USA.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Received November 22nd, 2011; revised January 6th, 2012; accepted January 16th, 2012

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a look at the concept of Lean Manufacturing as applied to the office environment. Lean Manufacturing, which is often referred to as Lean, is a philosophy of manufacturing process improvement through the elimination of waste. As Lean developed since its origins in the automobile industry, it has been extended to apply to various
enterprises and organizations, and has achieved a renowned reputation for reducing waste while adding value to products and services. Lean has also been applied in the office environment; however, participants in the implementation of
Lean Office face more difficulties because of higher variation in office processes, less foundation information for participants, and lack of references in literature. This paper addresses these issues by proposing, a systematic procedure for
conducting Lean Office techniques, along with a case study at a local company. The case study demonstrates a step by
step procedure to help more participants in Lean Office understand its benefits and how to get started.
Keywords: Lean Manufacturing; Lean Office; Value Stream Mapping; Kaizen; Kanban

1. Introduction
Although Lean was initially introduced by the automobile industry, its principles have more recently spread
into other industries. There are a variety of companies
that have experienced the advantages of applying Lean in
their manufacturing area. For instance, Lean was applied
by Boeing to eliminate waste and make its products more
cost-competitive. After implementing Lean, Boeing successfully cuts its defect costs by 75 percent, which resulted in a cost savings of about $655,000 per aircraft [1].
Moreover, after applying Lean in its manufacturing system the inventory level of DELL dropped by 50% and
the time required to produce a PC was reduced, and as a
result, DELL can guarantee that customers will receive
their products one week after they order them [2]. These
enterprises are major producers of tangible products and
the results of their improvements can be measured by
comparing the product cost before and after implementation. In order to obtain such benefits in the office settings
of the manufacturing industry, Lean princeples are now
being applied in office-based functional areas such as
research and development, administration, and customer
service.
Lean is a systematic approach for identifying and
eliminating waste through continuous improvement by
flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection [3]. One of the key phases in Lean is
the identification of non-value added steps in order to
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streamline a process. By classifying the steps of a processes into two categories, value added and non-value
added, it is possible to initiate actions to improve the
former and eliminate the latter by reducing wastes in
both of them. In his book, Toyota Production System,
Taiichi Ohno lays out the main foundations of Lean
Manufacturing, and describes seven wastes existing in
manufacturing [4]. These wastes are transportation, inventory, waiting, defects, over-processing, excessive motion, and over-production. To identify areas in a system
where improvement is needed, the seven wastes needs to
be identified and then measured. While most of these
wastes are visible and easily quantifiable in a manufacturing environment, they are more difficult to be distinguished and measured in an office environment.
Transportation waste in manufacturing, for example,
can be measured by estimating the time consumed while
moving work in process (WIP) from one workstation to
next workstation. On the other hand, in an office environment, most of the tasks are translated via email or fax,
causing more variation in time consumption, and correct
arrive and departure times are difficult to determine. Inventory waste in manufacturing can be classified by calculating the WIP level in the workstation or finished
goods in the warehouse, but it is hard to identify the
amount of pending items in each office job. Moreover,
time waste due to waiting can be evaluated by accumulating the total idle time of machines or operators; whereas,
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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

the idle time in the office is difficult to judge because

some tasks require confirmation by a supervisor or customer. This makes it difficult to assess the problem due
to lack of definition of office workers idle time. Furthermore, the defect rate can be measured by calculating
the amount of finished product and WIP that fail inspection divided by the amount of parts that pass inspection,
but it is hard to establish a measurement in an office environment to distinguish whether the task is failed or not
because there are many variables in these tasks.
Not only are office wastes difficult to define, lack of
references about conducting Lean in an office environment leave participants struggling in how to get started.
Although some Lean Office projects have been documented [5-7], a systematic procedure for creating a Lean
Office has not been universal. It is also the authors belief that more documented successful case studies of implementation of Lean Office, including a proposed systematic approach, would help many companies with such
a project. Implementing lean office helps reducing their
idle time and makes each department organized. The
purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a successful Lean
project in a local small manufacturer for two major purposes. First, this study will provide a systematic procedure which will help managers or engineers that are attempting to implement Lean in their office. Second, a
case study will be presented by following the proposed
systematic procedures at this company and demonstrate
that Lean can be implemented in an office environment
of the manufacturing industry.

2. Proposed Systematic Procedures for

Creating Lean Office
At this time, Lean principles have been applied in several
enterprises as a means of providing products and services
that creates value for customers with a minimum amount
of waste and a maximum degree of quality. Still, it can
be more difficult to bring the concept of Lean into the
office environment than a manufacturing area because of
a lack of understanding, a lack of cooperation between
departments, and a lack of directive from the top [6]. The
proposed procedures for providing a systematic approach
for implementing Lean in an office environment consist
of the following six steps.
Step 1. Form a Lean event team and provide Lean
training to team members
Before conducting a Lean event, some preparations
should be made, and a Lean event team must be formed.
Show the office administrators some typical cases of how
lean is successfully implemented in a manufacturing environment. Describe the blueprint after implementing
lean office to convince the office managers it is costeffective. Selecting team members depends on the goal
Copyright 2012 SciRes.

of this event or targeted department which is considered

as a bottleneck in the company. The basic rule for selecting members is to find major processes that are related to this Lean event and separate these into individual
process. Then, determine the owner of each process related to this event for providing necessary information;
moreover, fundamental training of team members is necessary to create a common language among the team
members and to help sustain the Lean event in the company.
Several professional organizations and companies exist today that provide training for new-Lean-participant
companies. They normally provide the introduction of
basic concepts about Lean Manufacturing to help team
members understand the benefits. According to a participant workbook of a Lean training organization [8],
Lean is a systematic approach to identify and eliminate
waste through continuous improvement, focusing on
flowing the product at the pull of the customer. Lean
philosophies are also described as a building with component blocks, which is shown in Figure 1. As seen in
this figure, there are several Lean principles that can be
used to eliminate waste from the system. Descriptions of
these Lean principles are listed in Table 1.
Once the basic Lean concepts have been introduced to
team members, they will have a better sense about how
to use these principles to eliminate waste and add value
to the product. In the Figure 1, it can be seen the important step to lead the team into the rest of the Lean building blocks is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). VSM is one
of the most powerful Lean tools available [9]. It combines material production flows with information flows
of company in a map; moreover, it forms the basis of an
implementation plan for company to start its Lean journey [10]. By mapping the whole processes, team members are able to visualize more than the single-process
level and realize the connection between information flow
and material flow. The four steps that follow summarize
the process for creating an office value steam map.

Figure 1. Lean building blocks.

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Table 1. Basic Lean principles and descriptions.
Lean principles

Description

Standardized Work:

Reducing the amount of variation in both the process and output with work instructions.

Quality at Source:

The product or information which will be passed to the next station should be confirmed as acceptable quality. Templates
and samples can be used as tools to efficiently perform the inspection.

5S or Workplace
Organization:

An organized work place helps workers perform their task efficiently and provides a specific location for everything
required. These 5S are described in the following:
1) Sort: What is not needed should be sorted out from the working place.
2) Set-in-order: Make what must be kept, visible and easily distinguishable.
3) Shine: The work place and equipment should be cleaned periodically.
4) Standardize: Make a standard for above three Ss.
5) Sustain: These rules should be followed by every worker in the station.

Point of Use Storage

(POUS):

Raw material is stored at the work station where it is used. Visual tools such as cards and record boards can be used as a
tool to simplify inventory tracking, storage, and handling.

Visual Control:

Simple signals such as cards, lights, color-coded tools, and lines delineating work are used as tools to provide
immediate information in the working place.

Team:

Lean philosophy values teamwork; therefore, any improvement suggestion in the company should be discussed among
team members and provided to supervisory level manager.

Batch Size Reduction:

By reducing the batch size, the lead time of completing a service or production will be reduced and quickly satisfying the
customer demand also help company to have a better cash flow.

Pull System:

A pull system is a flexible and simple method of controlling and balancing the flow of resources. Production and service
is based on customer demand rather than forecasting.

Work Cells:

Creating a cellular design rather than in a traditional straight line that will provide a better utilization of people and
communication.

Step 2. Selecting a product/service family for conducting VSM

Your customers care about their specific products,
not all of your products [10]. Therefore, it is important
to identify and focus on a single family of products from
the customer end of the value stream. It is only necessary
to map things that are relevant to this product or service,
as selected by the team leader, because drawing everything that happens in the plant on one map would make
the map too complicated [10]. Products or services which
involve similar customers and similar supplier inputs
should be put together as a target product family and
drawn on one VSM. That makes the VSM easier to visualize and understand.
Step 3. Drawing the current-state map
A current-state map value stream map is a tool that
helps teams see and understand the present flow of material and information. There are several tips for drawing a
current-state map [10]. The first tip is that the map
should be drawn by hand in pencil; drawing by hand can
be done without delay and helps members focus on the
flow rather than how to use computer software. The second tip is to collect current-state information while
walking through the actual pathway of the material and
information flow. Remember, mapping cannot be done in
a conference room; members should physically go see
and understand how each task is really done. Furthermore, the process owners can provide any information to
Copyright 2012 SciRes.

team members with as much detail as possible. The third

tip is that members should start at the customer end and
work upstream because services or products should be
driven by customer demand. Therefore, the process that
is linked most directly to the customer should be considered as the beginning and the pace for other processes
further upstream. The fourth tip is following the icon
scheme which is shown in Figure 2. There are established standard icons for value stream maps so that
members can create a VSM which is able to be understood by other people. Following these tips, members can
bring a stopwatch, paper and pencil and then start to
draw the current map. Typically, it takes five steps for
drawing an office value stream map [10]:
1) Document customer information and needs;
2) Perform a value stream walk-through for identifying
processes, filling data boxes, and calculating WIP numbers;
3) Show the linkage of information flow and material
flow in the office;
4) Calculate lead time and process times;
5) Complete the current-state map with lead time bars
and data.
Although the mapping process might be labor intensive, it takes the team to a deeper level of understanding
of what is actually happening and makes the case for
change more compelling. Additionally, the current-state
map provides foundational information for the future
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Figure 2. The common VSM icons.

state. After creating the current map all of the team members are able understand the entire process, and to have
more information for brainstorming the future state of the
company.
Step 4. Brainstorming and developing a future-state
map
The future state should be a chain of processes, where
individual process are linked to their internal and external customers, streamlined so that each process should
only produce what its customer needs, when they need it
[10]. In this step, team members should go through the
following seven questions and mark the future state ideas
directly on the current-state map based on the answers to
these questions [11].
1) What/When does the customer need?
2) How often will we check our performance to customer needs?
3) Which steps create value and which are wastes?
4) How can we flow work with fewer interruptions?
5) How do we control work between interruptions?
How will work be prioritized?
6) Is there an opportunity to balance the workload and/
or different activities?
7) What process improvements will be necessary?
Once the team has brainstormed ideas for the future
state as described above, a future value stream map can
be drawn. Rother & Shook described the purpose of
VSM as: to highlight sources of waste and eliminate
them by implementation of a future state value stream
that can become a reality within a short period of time.
After proposing a future value stream map, the team
members should start to think about how to make the
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future state become a reality as soon as possible.

Step 5. Proposing a value stream plan to reach the
future stage of VSM
Future value stream maps demonstrate an ideal state
for companies. It is essential to make a plan for achieving
the future state; otherwise the future value stream map
will become worthless. A yearly value stream plan should
be created. A value stream plan includes the implementation plan from the current state to the proposed future
state. This plan consists of several loops separated from
entire office processes, such as research and development,
finance, and customer service [10]. In most cases it will
not be possible to achieve the future state all at once because the proposed future value stream map demonstrates
the entire flow through the office. Therefore, dividing the
proposed future state map into several loops and improving individual loops is easier for team members to
implement [10]. The four steps that are used when improving an individual loop are:
1) Develop a streamlined process that operates based
on customer demand;
2) Establish a pull system to control production;
3) Apply leveling;
4) Practice Kaizen to continually eliminate waste and
extend the range of streamlined processes.
There are several points that should be indicated in the
value-stream plan, such as what will be implemented in
an individual loop, how to do that and when, measurable
goals, a clear check point with real deadlines, and an
assigned reviewer. A detailed one year value-stream
plan sheet example is provided in the case study in Ss
next section.
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Step 6. Conducting kaizen events for distinguishing

and eliminating wastes
Kaizen is a Japanese word that translates to continuous improvement. In the office environment, Kaizen
focuses primarily on the improvement of an individual
loop through the efforts of process owners by using their
experience [12]. Normally, there are three steps to perform the Kaizen activity which are:
1) Utilize the 5 whys method to find the root cause of
wastes [13], using the following guidelines:
a) Writing down the problem helps you formalize the
problem and describe it completely. It also helps a team
focus on the same problem.
b) Ask why the problem happens and write the answer
down below the problem.
c) If the provided answer doesnt identify the root
cause of the problem that you wrote in step 1, ask why
again and write that answer down.
d) Repeat above steps until the team is in agreement
that the problems root cause has been identified.
2) Brainstorm and develop the resolution to meet the
goal.
3) Implement resolution and sustain.
Based on the procedures of the Lean Office event, a
team consisting of several employees was formed to implement Lean in a local electrical company. This team
focused on assisting the company in dealing with complicated non-manufacturing departments such as Purchasing, Electrical and Structural Design, and Projects. It
is the authors hope that the case study serves as a stepby-step procedure in helping other companies achieve
their own Lean office environment.

3. Case Study of Creating Lean Office

3.1. Company and Product Introduction
The company is a small electrical manufacturer located in
the Midwest. They have a wide variety of customers located all over the world, in industries ranging from general contractors, to industrial facilities, to large comercial power grids. The major products of this company are
industrial switchgears and switchboards, and all of these
products are made to their customers exact specifications. The company has been applying Lean in their
manufacturing area for several years. The Project Manager (PM) told us the lead time of the manufacturing area
is one week, but the lead time of the previous process,
creating a blue book is about 4 weeks. A blue book consists of engineering drawings, BOM, and manufacturing
process plan for a given customer order. Customer satisfaction was highly impacted by the long lead times,
which kept customers waiting for their order. Therefore,
they wanted to transform their office processes by applying a Lean strategy in order to increase the efficiency
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21

of the design department, thereby increasing customer

satisfaction.

3.2. Lean Event Based on the Proposed

Procedure
Step 1. Form a Lean event team and provide Lean
training to team members
This Lean event is focused on improving the nonmanufacturing area in Company X. Several employees
were selected from the Purchasing, Electrical Design,
and Structural Design departments to participate in this
event. The PM was the leader of this Lean event team for
supervising the progress of this event and making the
improvement decisions. After forming the team, a basic
Lean principles training was provided to team members;
moreover, team members also learned about steps and
tips of creating a VSM.
Step 2. Selecting a product/service family for conducting VSM
The blue book was chosen as the target of this Lean
project because it is the major product of the non-manufacturing area. Creating a blue book involves three departments in the company: Purchasing, Electrical Design,
and Structural Design. The Lean event team focused on
the processes which were involved in creating a blue
book.
Step 3. Drawing the current-state map
Initially, the PM provided the information about customer demand. According to the passive orders, the
company receives about 180 orders annually. Performing
a walkthrough and collecting the data which represents
the current status in each department is the second step of
creating a current value stream map. By consulting process owners, team members obtained and recorded most
of the necessary information, such as process time, numbers of workers, and pending work in each station. After
the first walkthrough, team members became familiar
with the current flow and sequence of creating a blue
book and also roughly drew the current-state map by
following the icon scheme shown in Figure 2.
In the second round, team members focus on the communication in each department. Operation owners described the sequence of their jobs, and how they communicate with upstream and downstream processes. That
helps the team draw linkages of information and material
flow on the current-state map. In the third round, the
team focused on the time consumptions of each process
and pending job. Team members checked the process
time and lead time with operation owners; moreover, in
this walkthrough team members verified uncertain information collected in the previous walkthroughs. After
collecting this data and re-checking with the process
owners, the Lean project team created the current value
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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

stream map as shown in Figure 3.

Once the customer sends the order to Purchasing, this
department creates a quote and a rough Bill of Materials
(BOM). They notify the president that they received the
quote and then the president generates the order that tells
the PM to create the BOM. Additionally, the PM is in
charge of customer communication and reviewing any
design corrections. Therefore, every change in the blue
book must go through PM.
After creating the BOM, the PM sends it to the customer via email, and waits for the customer to review it.
The customer review takes about 10 working days, which
greatly increases the lead time of the non-manufacturing
area. After the customer is finished reviewing the BOM,
it is sent back to the PM who reviews the BOM once
again. After the PM is finished with this review, the
BOM is sent to Purchasing so that they can check the raw
material item numbers and ensure that the customized
product can be made based on raw material availability.
The map of the Purchasing sub process is shown in Figure 4.
While Purchasing performs this review, the BOM is
also sent to the customer for another review and correction. Once the customer reviews and approves the layout
and the purchaser verifies the items, the information is
sent back to the PM. Once the PM approves everything,
structural Design and Electrical Design stats the design

process. The map of the Structural Design process is

shown in Figure 5 while the Electrical Design process is
shown in Figure 6.
Since a blue book is made by several departments, the
Lean event team created a VSM for each department. In
the purchasing sub-process (Figure 4), most of the transportation of information was made via email. Following
the customers specification, the purchaser creates the
purchase order (PO) and sends a copy to each the supplier to ensure that the company can make the customized product. The POs are sent back to the purchaser
once the suppliers have checked their copy and corrected
any incorrect item numbers. The PM checks the item
numbers in the blue book again, makes the changes as
necessary to the PO, and then sends it back to the purchaser for any necessary review/corrections by the supplier. The PM told the Lean even team that the purchasing correction loop is usually repeated 2 times per task.
There are four designers involved in Electrical Design
and all of their work must be checked by the PM before
the designs are sent to the customers or the production
area. After the PM finalizes any corrections the electrical
design of the blue book will be sent to Support Cycle for
a point-to-point check of the electrical design and so labels can be made for each point and wire. After observing this and the Structural Design process, the Lean event
team members determined that the correction process

Figure 3. Current VSM overview.

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Figure 4. VSM of Purchasing sub process.

Figure 5. VSM of Electrical Design sub process.

was repeated at least 3 times. This greatly increased the

lead time of these sub processes. Furthermore, while all
of the design information that is transported from the PM
to the customers is done via email, the information transported between the PM and Electrical Design or Structural Design is done by physically delivering the blue
book.
Copyright 2012 SciRes.

Step 4. Brainstorming and developing a futurestate map

After three walkthroughs, the Lean event team members determined there were some needed improvements
in the current state. Based on the information from the
current value stream map, the team began brainstorming
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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

posed procedure, the team addressed the following seven

questions to define a future VSM:
1) What/When does the customer need?
In this case study, blue books are required for customer orders, and it is the need of the customers that receive the product that they have specified, with as short a
lead time as possible. According to a review of past orders, the company receives 180 orders per year. The
working time of the company is 8 hours per day, 250
days per year. The Takt time of each task, according to
Equation 1, is about 11.1 hours.
2) How often will we check our performance to the
customers needs?
The PM will review the customized blue book, and it
will also be reviewed by customers whenever it is

changed.
3) Which steps create value and which are wastes?
According to the current-state map in Figure 3, the total value-added time, such as creating BOM and creating
the electrical and structural designs, is only about 37.18
hours, but the non-value added time is more than 400
hours. By reviewing the current-state map and discussing
it with the process owners, the Lean event team found
that there are several existing non-value-added activities
and waste. These non-value-added activities are described
in the Table 2.
4) How can we increase the flow of work with fewer
interruptions?
Due to lack of control of task sequence and time consumption, it is not easy to track all of the tasks in the

Figure 6. VSM of Structural Design sub process.

Table 2. Identified non-value added activity.
Definition

Description

Transportation

In Figure 3, it can be seen that only the PM can directly communicate with the customer during the creation of the blue book,
and the communication is done via email; whereas, in the sub-processes (Figures 4-6), the internal communication, such as
delivery of blue books from the designers to the PM, is done via manual delivery.

Defect

According to Figures 4-6, it can be seen that there are several repeated corrections in the purchasing and electrical sub
processes, especially in the electrical design sub process. This increases the lead time of sub processes.

Inventory

According to the teams observations, each process has an average of 3 blue books waiting to be worked on.

Waiting

Since there is a large variation in the time consumed waiting for the customer corrections, the staff group recorded the average
waiting time, which is about 40 hours. It can be seen that there are two customer correction processes in the current state which
increase the total lead time to 465.5 hours.

Over-processing

In the purchasing sub process the purchase order is created and then sent to the supplier for revisions by the purchasing agent.

Over production

The material ordered arrives months behind the creation of the layout, electrical, and structural designs. The designs remain
unused for months until the desired material arrives. This results in numerous designs that are created and not used right away.

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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

company. The Lean event team suggested that the company apply a Kanban system. This will efficiently schedule tasks to real time demand as well as optimize and
control the pending work. Interruptions can be decreased
by applying software applications in some sub processes.
5) How do we control work between interruptions?
How will work be prioritized?
According to observations, every process in the company is done using a push system, there is no rule to control the task priority, and all of the information on customer demand is managed by the PM. Therefore, the
Lean project team suggested that a pull system be implemented where the priority of the tasks are controlled
by Kanban system managed by the PM.
6) Is there an opportunity to balance the work load
and/or different activities?
The team suggested that the PM follow-up with the
customers corrections frequently to reduce the time
consumption of reviewing the BOM and design layout. If
the lead time of the customer correction is able to be reduced, the total lead time to create the blue books would
be relatively decreased.
7) What process improvements will be necessary?
The team found that the PM and purchasers did not

25

check their email frequently; therefore, there is no efficient standard tracking system for task sequence. To
solve this problem the Lean project team suggested that a
Kanban system be implemented as well as using software
features to remind PM and purchasers to follow up with
customers and suppliers corrections. This would allow
the company to reduce the total lead time. The Lean project team also recommended that an online order entry
should be developed for the purchasing sub process as
well as the creation of a database so that available item
numbers can be recorded.
A clear future state of the company was envisioned by
the team members upon answering the seven questions
listed above. The team then proposed a future map for
the companys non-manufacturing area, which is shown
in Figure 7. The light burst areas designate the areas that
will be improved by conducting Kaizen activity. In the
proposed future state, the team members streamlined the
office processes and suggested that the production of
every process should be triggered by its customers demand.
The future VSM serves as a guide for further improvement of the Lean event. After the future state map is
proposed, the team members start brainstorming on how

Figure 7. Future VSM with light bursts of Kaizen events.

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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

to make it become a reality, and the leader of the team

creates the value stream plan.
Step 5. Proposing a Value stream plan to reach future ideal state of company
In order to reach the future state within a short period
of time, the leader of the Lean event team needs to create
a yearly value stream plan sheet. Each sub process is
considered a loop for improvement. Since the lead time
of the electrical design process is higher than the purchasing and structural design processes, this is considered as the first target to improve. There is a measurable
goal for each loop, and the leader assigns a person to be
in charge of the improvement of each of the loops. The
proposed value stream plan is shown in Figure 8.
Step 6. Conducting Kaizen events to reach the future state VSM
While brainstorming the future VSM, team members
identified where the non-value added activities and wastes
existed in the current process (Table 2). The goal of the
Lean Office event is to continuously reduce waste in office
processes and to add value in products or services. A
clear direction about what the team needs to implement

in what loop is provided by the value stream plan (Figure 8). The light bursts in the future-state map shown in
Figure 7, which are matched to the value stream objecttives in the value stream plan, represent a change that
needs to be made in order to make the current system
look more like the future state map. To achieve the goals
in the value stream plan, the team members conducted
several Kaizen events where they used the 5 whys
method to determine the root cause of a problem. Once
the root cause was identified the team then brainstormed
solutions for each problem. The following paragraphs
summarize these Kaizen events.
Kaizen Event 1: Reduce the defect rate in the electrical design process
The defect rate in the electrical design process is about
100%. The three effects of this high defect rate are:
1) The overall lead time is increased;
2) The amount of WIP inventory increases;
3) The Company labor costs increase due to rework.
Root cause identification:
In order to eliminate this problem, the Lean event team
used the 5 whys method to determine the root cause, as

Figure 8. Proposed value stream plan.

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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

summarized in Figure 9.
Proposed resolution:
The Lean event team suggested that the company ask
the electrical designers to cross check each others designs for accuracy. In addition, the purchasing process
should be completed before the design phase begins.
Therefore, by waiting for a final BOM and cross-checking each others work, the Electrical Design team can help
ensure that the PM is simply approving the final design,
rather than perpetuating a continuous cycle of corrections.
Kaizen Event 2: Reducing waiting time in the purchasing process
There is a repeated cycle that happens when Purchasing is forced to call the supplier for clarification. Waiting
waste takes place when the supplier has to send the order
back because they dont recognize the part number indicated on the bill of materials.
Root cause identification:
By asking the 5 whys, the team members are able to
find out the root cause, as seen in Figure 10.
Proposed resolution:
Due to the constant correction cycle between the material supplier and Purchasing, the Lean event team proposed another cell in which purchasing and quoting are
combined into one process to eliminate waste. If purchasing and quoting are combined into one process, the
BOM will be finalized and material ordered before the
PM starts a design and corrections will no longer need to
be passed to the PM. Consequently, the company can
save approximately 20 hours of labor per job and the
company can save $340 per job, for an annual labor savings of $61,200.
Kaizen Event 3: Reducing transportation in the design process
During the design creation process, unnecessary steps
are executed that require manual transportation of design
documents to several areas in the office. To deal with this
problem, the team members measured the distance from
each particular office and found where and when the
transportation occurs, which is summarized in Table 3.
Problem statement: The wiring diagram has to be double checked,
in many cases two times, by the PM.

After measuring the distances, the Lean event team found

that one critical problem in the design process is the
repetition of identical transports. The total manual transportation per job is approximately 3018 ft, which equals
to that $1334 in labor costs wasted by transporting blue
books or documents.
Root cause identification:
In order to reduce the transportation problem, the team
members use the 5 whys to find the root cause which is
shown in Figure 11.
Proposed resolution:
The Lean event team proposed a Kanban post and
Kanban card for the company, which is shown in Figure
12. This Kanban post visually shows the PM and designers each task and which department it is in. To track the
tasks efficiently, each task is accompanied by a Kanban
card. Once a process is completed, a slip is torn off the
Kanban card and then placed on the board. The PM can
Problem statement: There is too much delay in the purchasing
process.
1) Why is there too much delay in the purchasing process?
Because there are constant-correction cycles in the purchasing
process.
2) Why are there constant correction cycles in the purchasing
process?
Because the PM is involved with purchasing and quoting.
3) Why is the PM involved in purchasing and quoting?
Because purchasing is done after the design process has begun.
4) Why is purchasing done after the design process has
begun?
Because it reduces the amount of delay before the design can
begin.
5) Why does it reduce the amount of delay before the design
can begin?
Because the PM can begin the design without a purchase order.

Figure 10. 5 whys for waiting waste.

Problem Statement: There is 3018 ft of travel required during the
design process.
1) Why is there 3018 ft of travel required during the design
process?
Because the operations are repeated again and again.
2) Why does an operation repeat?

1) Why do the diagrams have to be double check by the PM?

Because corrections need multiple verifications.

Because errors are made in the wiring diagram.

3) Why do the corrections need multiple verifications?

2) Why are errors made in the wiring diagram?

Because the support staff sometimes creates errors.

Because the incoming data is not checked.

4) Why does the support staff create errors?

3) Why is the incoming data not checked?

Because the support staff is not involved in job creation.

Because mistakes and errors are repeated.

5) Why is the support staff not involved in job creation?

4) Why are the mistakes and errors repeated?

There is no internal correction procedure.

Figure 9. 5 whys for defect waste.

Copyright 2012 SciRes.

Because in this company, only the PM can communicate with the

customers and create jobs.

Figure 11. 5 whys for transportation.

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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

Table 3. Transportation distances.
Process

From - To

Distance

Scheduling

President to PM

119.7 Feet

PM to Structural

58.25 Feet

PM to Production

346.9 Feet

PM to Electrical

69.3 Feet

PM to Production

346.9 Feet

Repetition

Total Distance

233 Feet

415.8 Feet

Structural Design Creation

Electrical Design Creation

Figure 12. Proposed Kanban post and card.

then sign off on the Kanban slips. During the purchasing

or design process, any corrections are written on the slip,
which is then returned to the responsible team member.

into a Lean office that has customer-triggered working

processes, faster and systematic task tracking, and reduced costs due to a reduction of non-value added activeties.

4. Conclusion
This paper presents a systematic procedure which could
be used by Lean practitioners to conduct Lean events in
their office environment. The proposed procedure incurporates the knowledge of several articles, books and successful Lean events. It also includes a case study which
follows the proposed procedures and is provided as a
reference for creating a Lean office. The application of
Lean principles in a manufacturing area means identifying the value added and non-value added activities in
manufacturing processes and then eliminating the nonvalue added activities while improving the value added
activities. The systematic procedure proposed here extends this concept to transform an office environment
Copyright 2012 SciRes.

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Value Stream Management for Lean OfficeA Case Study

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AJIBM