Timothy McLean to present about Lean Office at Lean China Summit

TXM Managing Director Tim McLean will present case studies of innovative  Lean office implementation in Australia and China. Tim will be presenting at the Lean Enterprise China summit at the Crowne Plaza Fudan Hotel in Shanghai on June 11.

We all know that lean is a great tool for improving manufacturing processes. However in modern advanced economies a shrinking proportion of economic value is still produced on the factory floor.  In Australia service industries make up over 80% of economic output and even in manufacturing businesses, the majority of costs and much of the value creation is now to be found away from the factory floor – in the design office, the sales department, accounting and administration and after sales service. China is also rapidly becoming a more sophisticated and higher cost economy. Therefore lessons from a high cost country like Australia in applying Lean away from the factory floor in the Lean office and service industries are becoming more and more relevant.

Moving Lean out of the factory presents some major challenges though and requires innovative thinking based on core lean principles. Standard tools do not apply!

Tim will share the key learnings from Australian and Chinese case studies as well as provide insights in how to innovate with Lean when applying it in unconventional situations. What are the key principles that must be retained when adapting lean? How do you see the flow in an office or sales environment? How do you manage change and convince skeptical accountants, lawyers, sales people and marketers that the Lean approach might work for them?

Tim McLean is an Australian Lean Coach and Author.