The Lean Approach

For many decades, industrial organizations have mastered the art of Lean manufacturing and just in time. This approach to production uses basic principles to increase efficiency while improving flexibility and response to customer needs.

The principles of lean involve the maximization of customer value while reducing waste. This process of waste elimination works along the flow of the production process rather than at individual activities. The ideal situation is a process that delivers ultimate customer value with zero waste, that is, it meets all the customer needs at the lowest cost possible.

Lean principles applied to ICT

More recently a number of organizations have adapted the principles of Lean manufacturing, to the development and operation of ICT solutions. The applications of these principles allows companies to take better advantage of evolving technology while at the same time minimizes costs.

To accomplish lean thinking in an ICT environment, companies have to change their management focus from the optimization of individual technologies and services, to a process where the whole ICT environment is reviewed and overall waste is identified.

The elimination of waste along service lines or value streams creates processes and systems that need fewer resources, less effort and less time. ICT services delivered this way also suffer from much fewer defects and faults compared to traditionally managed ICT services and systems.

Why is this useful in Australia?

Australia is an entrepreneurial economy, where small and medium enterprises play a key role in the production and distribution of products and services. Many of these companies, need heavy investment in information and communication technologies to deliver their mission.

The use of lean approaches to ICT services creates an opportunity for these companies to differentiate themselves, both locally and more importantly internationally. Companies who adopt lean into their ICT services have much wider reuse of their ICT assets, and are capable of optimizing the investment in ICT, becoming more efficient and ultimately improving the prospect of success in a competitive economy.

What is the challenge?

Unfortunately for Australian companies, and most specially small and medium enterprise, current public policies may not facilitate the adoption of a lean model for ICT. In particular, many innovation programs require that participating companies establish rigid and comprehensive plans.  Furthermore, in many cases, companies are required to stick rigidly to those plans even if circumstances change and the initial need is better served by an alternative course of action.

Lean is all about becoming more efficient and in turn more productive, and our public policy framework should support the adoption of these models. In this way, companies that decide to follow the lean path can have the opportunity to become more competitive in an increasingly globalized economy.