What Is Lean Management In Project Management

What Is Lean Management In Project Management?

Today’s business world places a high value on efficiency and waste reduction. As a result, various management techniques, such as lean management, have been adopted across multiple industries.

So what is lean management, and how does it benefit project management?

This blog post will discuss the history, benefits, and principles of lean management in project management.

 

What Is Lean Project Management?

 

 

Lean management in project management is a technique that emphasizes the elimination of waste in all aspects of a project, including time, money, and effort.

It streamlines the project management process, makes it more efficient, and enables projects to be completed on schedule and within budget.

 

History of Lean Management

 

 

The origin of lean management is traceable to the Toyota Production System (TPS) developed by Taiichi Ohno in the 1950s. TPS was created in response to Toyota’s challenges, such as high production costs and long lead times. It is based on two key concepts – Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing and Kaizen or continuous improvement.

JIT is a production technique that reduces waste by producing only what is needed when it is required and in the right quantities.

On the other hand, Kaizen is a philosophy that advocates for continual improvement in all aspects of an organization.

In the 1980s, American companies began to adopt lean management principles in their businesses. In the 1990s, James Womack and Daniel Jones formalized the concept of lean thinking in their book The Machine That Changed the World.

Lean management has since evolved and been adopted across different industries, including healthcare, construction, software development, and project management.

 

Lean Management Benefits For Project Management

 

 

There are many benefits of lean management in project management. Some of these benefits are:

  • Fewer Defects: Lean management techniques such as JIT and Kaizen help to identify and eliminate waste in all aspects of a project. This leads to fewer defects in the final product.
  • Improved Quality: The focus on removing waste and continual improvement leads to better quality products and services.
  • Increased Efficiency: Lean management helps to streamline the project management process and make it more efficient. This leads to shorter project duration and reduced costs.
  • Improved Customer Satisfaction: Projects’ improved quality and efficiency lead to increased customer satisfaction.

 

 

Principles of Lean Management

 

 

The following are the fundamental principles of lean management:

 

Identify Value From The Customer’s Perspective

 

 

This principle is about understanding your customer’s needs and ensuring that your product or service meets them.

Understanding your customer’s needs can be done through market research, surveys, interviews, and other methods of gathering customer feedback.

Once you understand what your customers need, you can start working on ensuring that your product or service provides that value.

This may involve changing your current offering or developing new products or services that better meet your customers’ needs.

By always keeping the customer’s perspective in mind, you can ensure that your business provides the value they will appreciate.

 

Identify The Value Stream For Each Product

 

 

This principle involves mapping out each project step, from ideation and development to manufacturing and delivery. Doing that helps you identify any bottlenecks or areas of waste and put measures in place to improve them. This creates a lean and more efficient process that delivers better customer and company results.

 

Make Value Flow By Eliminating Waste

 

 

This principle is about eliminating anything that does not add value to the product or service. This includes any unnecessary steps in the process, as well as any waste that is created during production. For example, waste can come from excess inventory, defects, or unused materials.

By eliminating this waste, you can make the process more efficient and reduce the overall cost of production. This also leads to a better product or service for the customer as they get exactly what they need with no additional fluff.

 

Pull Value From The Customer

 

 

This principle is about creating a process that “pulls” value from the customer rather than pushing it on them. This means you only produce what the customer needs when they need it. This helps to eliminate waste and ensures that the customer is always getting what they want.

To do this, you need to understand your customer’s needs and establish a system that allows you to quickly and efficiently respond to those needs. This could involve using Just-In-Time manufacturing or having a flexible production process that can be easily adapted to meet changing customer demands.

By following this principle, you can ensure that your business consistently meets your customers’ needs while reducing waste and improving efficiency.

 

Continuous Improvement

 

 

This principle is about continually looking for ways to improve the process for both the customer and the company.

This includes regularly making small changes and improvements and larger-scale projects aiming to revolutionize operations.

Continuous improvement helps to ensure that projects in a portfolio are always moving forward and progressing toward their goals.

It also helps to create a culture of innovation and learning, which can lead to even more improvements.

 

“Lean” On Uppwise

 

 

Lean management is about continuous improvement and eliminating waste to achieve efficiencies and optimize resources.

And when it comes to project management, there’s no tool more compatible with lean management than Uppwise. Uppwise allows teams to track progress and results in real-time, identify areas of waste and inefficiency, and quickly implement solutions to improve performance.

With Uppwise, teams can work smarter in a less complex fashion and make continuous improvement a part of their workflow.

As a result, they’ll be able to complete projects on time and under budget while maintaining the highest possible quality. So if you’re looking for a way to help your team implement lean management in their project management, get lean with Uppwise today.