Carkean Solutions: Lean Services

Lean services are centred on two concepts: value demand and failure demand. Between these we can ascertain what the customers are expecting from the service, and, in turn, what they’re not expecting and what they could consider wasteful.

As the name would suggest; the ideal situation is to maximise what they would expect/pay for while minimising the waste.

 

Value demand is the demand of the service from the customers, which could roughly be translated to “what you can do right by your customers”.
Making this the hardest of the two types of demand to improve, as it’s not always easy to see where you can add value or extra layers of service. Equally sometimes it can be adverse to increase value, as you could end up making the service too complicated or extensive.
Mostly, however, this is the heart of Lean Services in many ways.
As while you may have failure demand as a second component- increasing value is your main priority.

Failure demand, in comparison, is the demand created when the initial value is lower than expected. As an example: in a call centre, value demand would be created by prompt replies and an acceptable phone manner. Failure demand would be not following up calls, not dealing with them promptly or even answering the phone in the first place.
In this way, while the two are linked quite tightly (as one is the direct result of the other) you cannot statistically compare them.
By treating failure and value demand alike in statistical analysis, failure demand can help give a quite false impression of greater productivity.

We’re all customers to some degree and we all want things from various services. Often, we want a more efficient and cost-effective service or more value for money.
However, some services are cost-intensive and cost whether we like them to or not.

This is why it helps to look from the customer’s point of view and see just what, if you were the customer, you would want from a service.

• What things would be worth your time/money?
• Why would you choose this service over another?
• What does “more value for money” really mean?

Identifying these things (and more) can give you a better idea of what you are delivering, and why, as sometimes while something may work better- it’s more work. More work that may be hard to justify to those doing it, which is something you should always consider.

As the quality of the service is directly related to those delivering it. And if they are faced with the prospect of more work, for the same service, without any foreseeable gain (on their part) quality could drop there.
In order to create value you have to reduce waste, this is pretty much what Lean Services does- reduce waste.

However, that’s a rather broad interpretation so we’re going to single out seven common causes of waste. Not all of them may apply to you or your organisation, but some will do and some will apply slightly:

1. Delay in the delivery of the service to the customer, while their time may seem “free”- you’re vying for that as much as their custom.
2. Having to re-enter data or redo work that has been left undone, not followed up or completed to standard.
3. Moving products, resources, services and labour unnecessarily with no given reason or purpose- time wasting, effectively.
4. Wasted communication (or lack of) where services, labour and resources are not delivered or delivered in error.
5. Lack of products or labour to deliver services, products and resources on time and to the standard required.
6. Losing or failing to retain customers through either bad manners, or being unable to meet their requirements fully.
7. Errors in the end product or service which leads to dissatisfaction and going somewhere else for the customer/party involved.

Borrowing slightly from Lean Manufacturing we can begin to see an eighth kind of waste. This waste is, quite simply, not making sure the needs of the consumer has met before delivering the service to them.
If the service doesn’t meet their requirements they won’t take it.
For example: if you were to look at smartphones and say “What do people want from them?” the answer would, most likely, vary from person to person. Although, there would be a few core features certain types of users would want.

Those would be considered your primary requirements and/or your specification. Following that would make sure you deliver the service that is required, while adding all of your usual extra functionality later.

Lean Services is not a wonder cure but an exercise in efficiency and value-enriched service. It won’t solve all of your problems- but will make your service better, overall, for your customers.
It is useful for many organisations and well worth looking into if you deliver a service regularly.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an individual not the corporation

Innovation through processes.

You know, we at Carkean Solutions love innovation so much that we don't stop talking about it! But, never fear- it's all good information and you'd be wise to stay a while and listen.

As part of our management consultancy services we offer innovation management.

Innovation management can be used for developing both product and organisational innovation, for developing innovative processes and to make research and development more effective. We at Carkean believe that innovation management should include a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes.

The focus of innovation management is to allow the organisation to respond to an external, or internal, opportunity and to use its creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products.
Importantly, innovation management is not confined to research and development- it involves employees at every level in contributing creatively to an organisation's development, manufacturing, and marketing.

By utilising appropriate innovation management tools, organisations can trigger and deploy the creative skills of the employees towards the continuous development of the organisation.

Innovation processes can either be pushed or pulled through development.
A pushed process is based on existing or newly invented technology, that the organisation has access to, and tries to find profitable applications for.
While a pulled process tries to find areas where customers’ needs are not met, and then focus development efforts to find solutions to those needs.

Through this theory we can help your organisation become more productive and develop effective strategies for everyday problems. Not to mention, increase your innovation several fold.

Thank you for reading, as always!
Feel free to comment if you have something to add about innovation management or you want to share your experiences.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an idividual not the corporation

Management Consultancy.

Seeing as that is what we at Carkean Solutions do, besides promote innovation, it's probably a good idea soooner rather than later to talk about it. Management consultancy is both the industry in which we work, but also the trade which we ply.

As our trade, management consultancy often involves working closely with organisations and providing an analysis of their operations and objectives. Looking for possible problems and working to provide solutions. Sustainable, long-lasting and competitive solutions which do more than just deliver a service.
Working in this trade are many specialised consultants with a great deal of expertise and experience, which is primarily the reason that organisations hire the service.
That and the benefits of having an internally or externally sourced operation hitting hard at the efficiency of an organisation. Trying to make it more efficient, more balanced and more profitable.

Although, management consultancy is not without its naysayers and dissenters.
Due to the common ideal of using the "best practices" there is sometimes a clash of corporate cultures resulting in failed translation. Some practices, though highly lucrative and successful, are not easy to apply to some industries and often that lets the side down.
That said- that's not the only way management consultants work with clients and often to pigeon hole them into that mindset would be folly.

Often management consultants are responsible for strategic and technological implementation. Mostly using models, guidelines or a framework to develop a new direction for organisations to help streamline trivial corporate tasks. While providing secondary approaches to major corporate tasks.
The aspect of consulting comes from the rather spoken and suggested approach to advising on more efficient/profitable methods of doing business. Not simply telling- but suggesting, discussing and developing solutions for organisations often singularly for them.
As, like we said above, the lack of corporate culture cross-intergration makes it hard to provide a "one solution fits all" practice.

In general, the services they provide are either through technology or through process management (which can also be done via technology). In this way, there are several classifications of management consultancy organisations and together they can provide a range of services.

Which is one of their stronger advantages, in that, through working with so many large organisations, they have a wealth of experience and expertise they can share relating to how others in their industry are dealing with the same challenges.
Though, of course, this will be done without sharing the name of the organisation as that would be breaching all kinds of laws.

Thank you for reading, as always!
We hope this has proved to be an interesting insight into what our industry and consultants can do for you.

All information presented here is © copyright Carkean Solutions Ltd., 2010 - Not to be used without our permission - The views expressed here are the views of an idividual not the corporation