Lean services is the application of

lean manufacturing Lean manufacturing is a methods of production, method of manufacturing goods aimed primarily at reducing times within the Operations management#Production systems, production system as well as response times from suppliers and customers. It is ...

production methods in the

service industry The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the s ...

(and related method adaptations). Lean services have among others been applied to US health care providers and the UK

HMRC His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the UK government responsible for the tax collectio ...

History

Definition of "Service": see

Service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

, Business Service and/or Service Economics. Lean Services history, see

Lean manufacturing Lean manufacturing is a methods of production, method of manufacturing goods aimed primarily at reducing times within the Operations management#Production systems, production system as well as response times from suppliers and customers. It is ...

. Lean manufacturing and Services, contrasted by Levitt; "Manufacturing looks for solutions inside the very tasks to be done... Service looks for solutions in the ''performer'' of the task." (T.Levitt, Production-Line Approach to Service, Harvard Business Review, September 1972).

Method

Underlying method;

. Bicheno & Holweg provides an adapted view on waste for the method ("waste", see Lean manufacturing, waste and The Toyota Way, principle 2): # ''Delay'' on the part of customers waiting for service, for delivery, in queues, for response, not arriving as promised. # ''Duplication''. Having to re-enter data, repeat details on forms, copy information across, answer queries from several sources within the same organisation. # ''Unnecessary Movement''. Queuing several times, lack of one-stop, poor ergonomics in the service encounter. # '' Unclear communication'', and the wastes of seeking clarification, confusion over product or service use, wasting time finding a location that may result in misuse or duplication. # ''Incorrect inventory''. Being out-of-stock, unable to get exactly what was required, substitute products or services. # ''An opportunity lost to retain or win customers'', a failure to establish rapport, ignoring customers, unfriendliness, and rudeness. # ''Errors in the service transaction'', product defects in the product-service bundle, lost or damaged goods. # ''Service quality errors'', lack of quality in service processes. Shillingburg and Seddon separately provides an additional type of waste for the method:Shillingburg, 2011 # Value Demand, services demanded by the customer.

Failure Demand Failure demand, also known as avoidable contact, is demand on a service organisation caused by the organisation's failure to do something, or to do something right, for a customer. It is distinguished from value demand - normal requests for whatev ...

, production of services as a result of defects in the upstream system.

Criticism

John Seddon John Seddon is a United Kingdom, British occupational psychologist and author specializing in organizational change within the service industry. He is the founder and managing director of Vanguard, a Consulting firm, consultancy firm establishe ...

outlines challenges with Lean Services in his paper "Rethinking Lean Service" (Seddon 2009) using examples from the UK tax-authorities

References

Lean manufacturing Customer service

History

Method

Criticism

See also

References