Office Kaizen: Transforming Office Operations into Strategic Competitive Advantage [Paperback]

After nearly 4 years experience as a 6 Sigma Black-belt leading projects centered on the commercial side of a Fortune-500 enterprise---sales, marketing, marketing services, customer service, HR, etc.-I was pleased to see the emphasis on implementation tactics at the level where most of the detailed work of an organization gets done. It fills the gap left by bigger programs.
It is not so much a "How to" book as it is a "WHY to" book of logic meant to motivate and provoke thought. It fills a gap where other, bigger name programs can fail to deal with the sustaining power of changing human behavior. But with Office Kaizen there appears to be a proven path forward.
Much of the 6 Sigma work I have seen in transactional projects often fails to meet expectations and truly improve outputs in ways that last longer than the `official' measurement period. Such projects often encompass arenas of business activity in which no formal process map has ever existed, even less the mere idea that a process exists. Lacking a consensus understanding of work flow, it follows that NO standards for output exist; NO metrics are captured to qualify those standards; little consideration for the customer's expectations of quality is built into the process; and clearly NO discipline is needed where there is NO process structure. Not surprisingly, little sense of ownership is evident. It's a steep slope that only leads to status quo and mild, but constant chaos!
Modifying the human aspects of process change is often challenging for 6 Sigma methodologies that better fit finite manufacturing, logistical and similarly tangible processes. In my experience of completing `soft' projects, 6 Sigma methods simply don't have as many tools for dealing with the level of granularity and immediate application at the individual behavior level as are found in Office Kaizen. The proposed methods directly treat the realities of getting work done at the molecular level. Regardless of all else done to improve business process, there is still a key implementation step remaining- changing the human behaviors embedded in work processes.
Visual displays (PVD's), Lean Daily Management Systems (LDMS), 20 Keys and the whole treatment of `surface waste' are very instructive for the business leader seriously pursuing process improvement. That leader will greatly benefit by reading the logic, described by Mr. Lareau in "Office Kaizen", that clarifies the reality that the enabling key to all change in business process is leadership.
Sustainability only derives from leadership---leaders who understand that improvement really comes from the bottom up; and that procedure by procedure, paper by paper, person by person, load by load, part by part, and day by day improvements converge to yield sustainable gains. The LDMS assures that change endures. And leadership assures that LDMS and other LEAN office procedures endure. Their focus on reducing waste via correct structure, discipline and power of ownership, all fixed first at the granular level of an enterprise, will produce sustainable gains. And that is the detail most difficult to implement in other programs -- the human behavior at the core of business activity. Changes to machines, flow patterns, wire diagrams, office layouts, floor arrangements, schematics, etc. all can help; but changing the human processes is most difficult. From page 7: "Office Kaizen is an implementation path, management philosophy, leadership structure, and set of tools, all wrapped into one consistent package." That is a great recipe for sustainability.
I recommend the book highly, especially for application in business functions not traditionally viewed through `process eyes'. While it seems to have plenty of strength to stand alone, PVD's, LDMS and the other adminstrative LEAN ideas could also be great companion pieces to the more general tools like 6 Sigma. At least that's the opinion of one who has practiced some of the popular methods and only now has read about Office Kaizen. I look forward to seeing it first-hand. It fills a serious gap.

I found the real value of this book for me was in the identifying of the 26 different transactional wastes. Most Lean training only identifies 7 but it is great for the non-manufacturing sector to see how waste can be identified. I ignored the "slim it" concepts, etc as another review points out that it seem s plug for another "flavor of the month" and his consulting business. Sticking to the traditional Lean approach to transactional processes this book added real value to me in the section on waste, including the examples.

Though written for the office, I found this book to be a useful tool to understand how to execute and sustain change in an organization, especially one implementing lean.

The initial descripton of "office wastes" was interesting, but the meat of the book in my opinion is its description of the process tools that can be used to eliminate the wastes and improve an organizaiton's ability to execute, namely Slim-It and Lean Daily Management System (LDMS). Our organizaiton has struggled with how to sustain lean gains once initial implementation is done, whether by kaizen or project team. We have also struggled with how to build the continuous improvement culture necessary to expand lean gains. LDMS seems to be the kind of "tool" that can help build this culture, whether used in the office, as described here, or the plant.

I plan to try and apply lean in our office operations using the techniques described in Office Kaizen. I am also applying LDMS in factory areas we have already leaned out, to build and sustain the culture we need to keep improving. Initial results with this approach have been very encouraging.

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