Everyone wants to create more profit with less waste and that’s what Lean management is all about. The methodology of lean project management was developed by the Japanese automobile company Toyota, back in the ’50s. Although the practice wasn’t started until the ‘70s. It was 1970 when they started implementing the principles of lean management during energy crises.
Many of you might have a hard time understanding the whole thing but let us make it easier for you. Lean management is a concept and it has five basic principles we’ll talk about later. Before that, we’d prefer to mention three Ms These 3 Ms are the types of waste according to lean project management. And it aims to reduce them.
- Muda — activities that consume resources, and do not provide additional value.
- Muri — overuse of employees or equipment
- Mura — the origin of the word Mura is from Japan and it means “irregularity”. In lean management, it is used to refer to decreased efficiency and productivity.
Principles of Lean Management
There are following five principles of lean management and each one serves to get the ultimate customer satisfaction. Plus, these principles help you in reducing product waste while being on the project. And once you walk through these rules yourself, you’ll create a better understanding of what lean project management is.
Value identification:
The first and foremost rule or principle of lean management is to identify the value for customers. You might be thinking what does it mean, well a value can be defined as anything your customer would pay. You can consider the value of your product. Once you identify your product’s value for your customer, it enables you to evaluate your services better. Your product should be valuable enough to satisfy the needs of your customer with less waste.
Suppose, you are assigned an essay that needs to be delivered before the next day. Would you compromise on its quality? You might be willing to go the extra mile to find the best services for essay writing in Ireland. And perhaps, you’ll pay extra bucks for the quality. Right? Why? Only if the value of their product is higher as compared to others in the market. And we are pretty aware of their essay value for the customers. Now, that’s what you call value identification.
Value stream mapping:
Another principle of lean project management is known as value stream mapping VSM. You identify the key values using a value stream mapping tool. It focuses on and diagrams your current and ideal workflow from the beginning to the end of your project. And when you compare both workflows, the identification of waste over each management project becomes easier. And that led you to get the maximum efficiency.
You might wonder what these wastes possibly can be. Well, don’t worry about that because Toyota already identified the wastes you may find through VSM which are the following:
- Overproduction
According to lean management, overproduction and the addition of unnecessary features of software creates additional costs. For example, extra storage, useless inventory, and wasted materials.
Now if you are looking for additional profit, you are supposed to control wastage of overproduction.
- Not managing backlogs correctly
Next waste can be considered inventory waste. This type of waste comes from incomplete work or tasks. And it results in unnecessary costs for storing inventory, transportation costs, and additional costs spent to complete work.
- Switching the tasks
Task switching or motion waste consists of needless movement within the factory and it can kill warehouse productivity. For instance, a machine or tool that is continuously moving from the start point to anywhere in a warehouse. Or this can also be an excessive switching between business apps. And why is it considered a waste? Well, unnecessary motion or switching tasks can make you miss important tasks and messages.
- Tech-debt
Technical debts are the defects in tools and machines. And we think you are already aware of defect waste. Because repairing costs are pretty high especially if it includes industrial equipment. Plus, you also lost your valuable time repairing them.
- Expensive tools
When you practice over-processing it makes you purchase expensive tools to upgrade your products. And sometimes you purchase tools that don’t even work. When you are working according to the concept of lean management, over-processing is considered a waste. And you should avoid it.
- Transport
Just like motion waste, transportation is no different than that. It costs money, time, and external movement. Hence, this is another waste that can be tracked using VSM.
- Waiting
Suppose, you have bought excessive raw material for product manufacturing. But for some reason you are not getting enough orders, this is called a waiting waste. Because you did not get enough revenue for the material you have bought. And ultimately end up with an unusual loss.
- Fragmented teams
If you have team fragmentation in your place then think of it as a waste. Why? Well, first of all, it leads to miscommunication and unwanted meetings. And secondly, it lacks strong collaboration within the teams. So, fragmented teams can cause various problems for your firm.
These are the following waste you can track with the help of value stream mapping. You can even compose a brand new assignment using this information, instead of asking everyone to write my essay for me. Anyhow, this leads us to the 3rd principle of lean project management which can be called flow.
Flow
Once you are done removing the waste, it’s time to create a smooth flow. This step is essential to generate good value. The following principle consists of breaking down the process to create independent delivery units. And also to remove delays and friction.
Pull
You need to establish the pull to reduce work in progress and excessive inventory. Now to handle these two wastes, you have to develop an understanding of when your customer is going to pull the value from the industry whether he takes genuine essays online.
Betterment
Working hard towards the betterment of your industry requires a lot of effort. And that is the last principle of lean project management. Once you get everything done, that’s when the actual challenge begins. Now you are supposed to maintain the whole process from start to end.
Conclusion These five principles of lean project management are hardly mechanical. Instead, the whole process and concept demand strategy. And more than that, it requires analysis, implementation, innovation, and adaptability.
