Key result areas that depend on successful Lean implementation are of two types – one relates to the customer and the other to business.
One of the key result areas, that is business success measures, eventually leads to customer satisfaction. This way, it all amounts to only one key result area – delight your customers! The foundation of lean thinking is to look at your business from your customer’s point of view. Question every step of your process – is the step adding value to the customer?
Find below a list of key result areas where Lean tools can help:
Key Result Area #1: Customer-focused success measures (Improve reliability)
- Improve quality
- Reduce cost
- Reduce time to deliver
- Improve availability
- Reduce order to delivery lead time
Key Result Area #2: Business-focused success measures (Improve performance and reduce costs)
- Reduce inventory levels
- Minimize throughput cost per unit
- Reduce throughput time
- Improve resource utilization
Lean Tools
Lean tools can be used in services too. It provides the answers to questions such as, “How should I reduce turnaround from ‘ask to hire’ to ‘employee on board’, and from ‘seek to buy material’ to ‘material inhouse’?” Additionally, Lean tools are used to create a world-class facility. They can be included in supply chains to optimize costs.
You may find yourself wondering, “will Lean tools work for me?”. It depends on how many problems you have with it so far. If your answer is ‘none’, look towards an exciting journey ahead with Lean tools. Success and failure will be your real teachers. With every attempt, your knowledge will improve, and you will be a Lean implementation master one day. There are no shortcuts!
In addition to knowing about the key result areas, make sure you check out the Lean principles that can guide your journey.