Transactional Assessment

What’s Included:

• Value Stream Map (VSM)
• Back Office Audit
• Email Analysis

Value Stream Map

A value stream (VSM) is the series of steps that occur to provide a product, service and/or experience the customer desires.   The map includes: the amount of potential opportunity the manufacturing operation must produce more product, the amount of variation the final product had relative to customer specifications,  the amount of customer specification consumed by measurement system error,  how well data is used to manage the production processes,  and where processes could be modified to reduce inefficiencies. Samples of product quality are reviewed with standard statistical protocols to understand how well the product complies with the customer specifications.  This statistical analysis includes checking for data stability and normality of the data, and then calculating capability indices.  Measurement systems evaluations are requested to understand the degree of precision and accuracy the systems used to run the processes and to measure the final product quality. 

Back Office Audit

In order to integrate Lean into a back office work environment, four elements need to be in place. Cultural Enablers – They guiding principles are to Lead with Humility and respect every individual.  The supporting principles are; nurture long term relationships with suppliers, customers, and employees, empower and involve everyone, develop people, and assure a safe environment.  Continuous Improvement – The guiding principles are to Focus on process, embrace scientific thinking, flow and pull value, assure quality at the source, and seek perfection.  The supporting principles are; stabilize processes, rely on data, standardize processes, insist on direct observation, focus on value stream, keep it simple and visual, identify and eliminate waste, integrate improvement with work.  Enterprise Alignment – The guiding principles are to create constancy of purpose and think systematically.  The supporting principles are; see reality, focus on long-term, align systems, and align strategy.  Results – The guiding principle is to create value for the customer.  The supporting principles are; measure what matters, align behaviors with performance, and identify cause and effect relationships.

Email Analysis

Email analysis is an effective measure of waste on the transactional side of the business.  In many transactional cultures, email is used for documenting what occurred for defending actions taken or not taken by personnel in the process.  Often email is redundant and unnecessary because the information is available in the computer system.   The purpose of this assessment is to establish a baseline of the volume, categories, and if the email is used for value-added purposes.  This assessment increases awareness of the waste that is introduced into the transactional processes via email and identifies the behavior and process changes that need to occur.  The employee defines categories for the emails that they typically receive and send.  Each category is then assigned as Value Added (VA) or Non-Value Added (NVA).  They also identify keywords associated with those categories.  This information is entered in the software and the mailbox content is analyzed.  The employee analyzes the results for opportunities to reduce NVA email.

Outcomes:

• VSM Identification
• Value stream map.  Depending upon the application, we may end up building a swim lane map if that fits the application
• Prioritized project list with financial impact
• Backoffice audit score for each of (4) dimensions
• Physical office layout recommendations
• PC window arrangement analysis
• Prioritized recommendations
• Email analysis, per user, broken down by category, % VA, % NVA, and by hours