Implementing lean into a servicing environment

Abstract

The study provides a description of what Lean means in a service context, focused on the energy sector. The study covered a range of operational processes, including TQM, Six Sigma and freestanding benchmarking and Kaizen initiatives. A divide between managers actively implementing Lean and those that are not is clear in both survey results and interviews; this divide is driven wider by the misunderstanding of what is actually being implemented, sometimes inappropriately assigned as Lean. Moreover, only a core of Lean manufacturing attributes are carried through into services: waste removal, responding to customer demand and increased breadth of communications in the firm. The study also finds that Lean is consistently confused with Six Sigma, but that this does not negatively impact the Lean implementation. © 2010 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.