Skinny Isn’t Just for Jeans: Lean Business and the Service Sector
Doing more with less is the mantra of today’s business. Hiring more people or throwing money at a problem is almost never the best way to solve it… even if there are people and dollars to throw. Businesses are feeling the crunch today more than ever, in some part due to advancements in
Lean and efficient business isn’t of concern just to manufacturing sector, even though that is where you most frequently hear about initiatives relating to process improvements tied to quality
Quick: What do legal professionals and assembly-line workers have in common?
"More than either one might think, apparently. After all, the “lean” approach to manufacturing—a concept which rolled off the Toyota Production System, only to be delivered to ailing U.S. auto giants in the late 1970’s—wouldn’t immediately seem applicable to workplaces where the heaviest lifting involves leather briefcases. As for paring resources, such as inventory, down to a minimum—it seems like overkill when applied to pens, yellow pads, laptops and file folders.
But the lean concept long ago roared out of manufacturing and parked its principles in service industries: lean
accounting , lean healthcare, lean startups."via http://performance.cfo.com/2015/05/11/the-real-skinny-on-lean/
Professional service firms are being compelled to reduce costs just to compete, and are finding that cost-cutting isn’t all that is required. Rather than doing more with more people, firms have begun to recognize that getting more done with fewer
Technology advancements are among the primary drivers moving service firms to explore leaner and more efficient ways of working. As more sophisticated tech and the resultant capability it delivers is made available in the market, more businesses begin to recognize that the “traditional” providers of certain services may no longer be the most cost efficient suppliers. Competition often emerges from some of the most unlikely of sources, and this new reality is impressing itself upon even the sturdiest of professional service firms who find themselves facing new threats to the status quo.
"Like all customers, legal clients seem to have grown fussier than ever. One study estimates that about 60% of large clients replaced one of their top two law firms last year—citing mediocre service. As is true across industries, the cost of acquiring new clients only heightens the appeal of retaining existing ones."
via The Real Skinny on Lean: It’s out of the Factory and into the Service Sector – Performance.
There is much talk among accounting and legal professionals as to what the “firm of the future” might look like. Are these firms highly efficient producers of service that rival the lean manufacturers, leveraging insight and innovation to deliver more value? Or are they adopting technology simply for the sake of change? There is a difference between change and improvement, and not all changes result in the desired improvements to
Make Sense?
J