Lean for Service Organizations and Offices: A Holistic Approach for Achieving Operational Excellence and Improvements

By Debashis Sarkar

Published by ASQ Press in 2007

Service organizations and offices worldwide are beginning to realize that only those companies that are efficient and able to meet the changing needs of customers will survive the fierce competition of the marketplace. Adopting Lean puts anyone in a position to be more likely to build an intimate relationship with customers and to build a foundation of operational excellence.

Lean as a philosophy is new to the service companies, and many of them struggle to find the correct approach for its adoption. Many declare early victory after a few successful projects only to realize that the benefits do not sustain over a period of time. This happens because they do not really know what it takes for a holistic Lean implementation in a service organization.

Lean has the ability to address a wide range of problems faced by service companies, such as: complexity reduction, sales force productivity enhancement, operations risk control, cost leadership, combining scale with flexibility, service excellence, and improving employee morale and involvement. Many of the principles discussed in the book are based on the author’s first-hand experience in Lean implementation. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, Lean for Service Organizations and Offices is light on theory and heavy on application, exactly what’s needed for a holistic and comprehensive Lean transformation.