In many manufacturers, quotes and orders take longer to process than the products take to make. How Lean thinking cuts waiting, handoffs and rework in office processes, and speeds up response to customers.
A contract manufacturer took an average of 11 working days to return a quotation. Customers often placed orders with whoever answered first, so the slow quotes were costing business. When the team mapped the quoting process, they found that the actual work, reviewing drawings, estimating cycle times and costing, took about four hours. The rest was waiting: in inboxes, for approvals, for supplier prices and for engineering time. The lean office case study describes how the turnaround fell to under three days.
Lean was born on the factory floor, but office processes are often where the biggest delays hide.
Why office waste is hard to see
In a factory, inventory sits on the floor where everyone can see it. In an office, the inventory is emails, files and requests, invisible in inboxes and systems. Waiting, handoffs and rework are just as real, but nobody can see the pile.
Office versions of the eight wastes
- Waiting: requests sitting in queues for approval, information or availability.
- Overprocessing: unnecessary approvals, reports nobody reads, excessive detail.
- Defects: incomplete or incorrect information that must be corrected, such as an RFQ missing drawings or an order with the wrong part number.
- Motion and transport: searching for files, re-entering data in several systems, handoffs between departments.
- Inventory: backlogs of requests, quotes or orders.
- Overproduction: preparing work before it is needed, or more than is needed.
- Unused talent: experienced people doing routine data entry.
The eight wastes apply as much to paper and data as to parts.
Mapping an office process
- Choose a process with clear customer impact, such as quotes, order entry, engineering changes or invoicing.
- Follow real requests through the process from start to finish, tracking each step and the time between steps.
- Measure total lead time and actual work time. The ratio is often similar to factory processes: a small fraction of the lead time is real work.
- Identify causes of delay: queues, approvals, missing information and rework.
Typical improvements
- Standardise inputs: checklists or forms that ensure requests arrive complete.
- Triage requests early: separate simple and complex requests, and handle simple ones quickly.
- Reduce approvals: set limits below which approval is not needed.
- Create flow: move work through the process in small batches, daily rather than weekly.
- Visualise work: a board or digital dashboard showing each request's status and age.
- Clarify roles and reduce handoffs.
- Automate data entry and routine steps after simplifying the process.
Measure what customers feel
Measure lead time from request to response, not just internal processing time. Track backlog size and age. Customers judge you by how long they wait.
The payoff
Faster quotes win more business. Faster order processing shortens delivery times. Fewer errors reduce costs and frustration. And the people involved spend their time on work that uses their skills.
