Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive lean approach, based on Value Stream Management (VSM), which makes it possi- ble to enhance the performance of a service, by spotting and tackling its criticalities. The study is motivated by the growing need to extend lean concepts to the service industry and, on the other hand, by a lack of operating tools capa- ble to support technical staff in this effort. Specifically, to tailor VSM to the specific requirements of pure services, sub- stantial modifications were made: 1) for a detailed map of the process new icons were created, 2) most of the lean approaches were adapted/modified and 3) concepts such as Takt-Time and Pitch have been redefined in a more suitable way. To validate the approach, an application concerning an enrolment process is presented. Results demonstrate the quality of the approach and confirm the significant improvements that can be obtained with the application of lean thinking to the service context.
Highlights
Nowadays, in an ever changing marketplace, satisfying the customer is more and more challenging and the service industry is struggling for better quality and costs reduction
This paper presents a comprehensive lean approach, based on Value Stream Management (VSM), which makes it possible to enhance the performance of a service, by spotting and tackling its criticalities
This paper has demonstrated that lean thinking has the potentialities to be implemented in the service industry as an effective way to cut costs and to increase customer’s satisfaction
Summary
In an ever changing marketplace, satisfying the customer is more and more challenging and the service industry is struggling for better quality and costs reduction. According to Hines et al [7], lean thinking can be defined as a managerial philosophy which enhances the value perceived by the customers, by adding product and/or service features and by continuously removing non value added activities (i.e. wastes), which are concealed in any kind of process This philosophy originated from a set of operative shop-floor techniques, it has progressively moved far beyond the frontiers of manufacturing systems, to embrace the whole organization [7]. It is due to endogenous causes, connected to the (wrong) way in which an organization is structured to process information [1,11] In this sense the application of lean approaches in the services industry remains an appealing possibility and, as a matter of fact, it has been underway for several years and many lean tools have been proposed in technical literature [12,13,14]. The following substantial modification were made: 1) for a detailed map of a service a new set of icons was created; 2) most of the lean approaches were adapted/modified and 3) concepts such as Takt-Time and Pitch were redefined in a more suitable way
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