ABSTRACT

As the Lean implementation matures, the organization will see the opportunity to link Lean strategic initiatives to the corporate strategy. The efforts to continually improve office value streams can be integrated into the strategy of the organization. This connection makes sense and provides a method to encourage everyone to be involved in continuous improvement. Strategies cascade from the upper levels in the organization down to the managers and teams. The Lean value stream metrics give the organization a way to measure improvement initiatives. These leading metrics are indicators that tell how the value stream is operating at this moment in time. The leadership team will become directly involved in reporting on the metrics in its weekly and monthly sessions. The leadership adopts its own improvement initiatives based on the observed metrics. The leader’s job is to demonstrate improvement at his or her level in the organization to show support for the Lean methods to the teams.