Last month, I attended the Professional Landcare Network’s Executive Forum in (not so sunny and not so warm) Bonita Springs, Florida.  The topic was a thought-provoking one - Lean Management.  The idea of Lean Management comes from Toyota, who has nearly perfected the waste-orientation of building cars.  Ever wonder why the Japanese automakers make money every day, when we read negative financial headlines about their American counterparts.

Many of my friends in our industry have instituted Lean Management as a business principle in their companies.  In a simple definition - Lean identifies and reduces, or eliminates waste.  Waste is then defined as anything that does not deliver value to the client.  Sounds pretty awesome.  Since I returned from Florida, I’ve noticed waste at every turn.  I guess that is not a bad thing, but it sure has me thinking.

So…  today we’re doing something pretty exciting…  We’re doing a Lean Management Project here at our office.  Not a full force 5S or Kaizen event, but an effort to look at our office itself and identify and reduce, or eliminate waste that does not deliver value to our client.  Our team has “taken two days off” from their normal duties (within reason) and we will be working here at the office in a couple of different arenas:  organizing our personal office spaces, organizing the common office spaces, throwing away things we don’t use that often, labeling the location of different items, putting all of our files in one central locations (except ones that we are currently using), etc.  We’re all excited, and it’s stretching us to deliver more value through our business by eliminating waste.

We’ll keep you posted as things develop.

One element of lean we’re already instituting:  we’re attempting to turn our entire accounting system over electronically.  By providing us your email address, we’ll send your invoices and statements via email.  Then, you can have your credit card on file, so we will charge your card monthly, thus eliminating paper, envelopes, stamps, checks, etc.  Everything is automated.  Of course, if there is ever a billing concern, you can just CALL the office, and we can make the appropriate adjustment.  Lean Management - you can certainly see the value, and we’re excited to deliver it to you as we embark on Lean Projects throughout the year.

(Special thanks to The Ariens Company and JP Horizons for delivering Lean Management as a principle to our industry.  Read more about PLANET’s Executive Forum in a recent article in Landscape Management)

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post