LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

What is Lean Project Management?

Lean Project Management (LPM) involves a structured approach that incorporates principles and concepts of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma to consistently deliver better project outcomes than traditional approaches. The framework focuses on customer satisfaction, and considers value and cost as two key factors to focus on. It is designed to eliminate waste in many project areas, maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of your team, and helping them to focus on high-priority activities that drive your project forward.

 

Various Kinds of Waste

LPM offers a holistic approach to the Lean and Six Sigma philosophies. It will help companies in all industries to get rid of waste, and save time and money. This waste can be classified into eight categories which are referred to using the acronym TIMWOODS:

• Transportation – excess movement of people, information or inventory
  
  
• Inventory – materials, or information that exceed process requirements and are sitting idle
  
  
• Motion – ergonomic issues, and poor workplace organisation that cause unnecessary movement
  
  
• Waiting – time lost waiting for information, instructions, materials, or equipment
  
  
• Overproduction – producing more products than is required or faster than it is required
  
  
• Over-processing – using more resources, particularly more expensive resources, than is necessary for a particular part
  
  
• Defects – defects in products, services, information, and communication that cause rework and result in loss of time, resources, and money
  
  
• Skills – underutilising or poorly utilising skills and abilities of employees by having them perform tasks for which they are overqualified
  
  
  

After reducing these types of waste, an organisation can solve problems more quickly, minimise process inefficiencies and increase productivity. It can lead companies from traditional project management to the lean way of operating.

 

Principles of Lean Project Management

Lean, also known as Lean Thinking, is not just a set of tools and methods but a business strategy, a philosophy, and a way of thinking that an organisation implements. It is a discipline of managing projects in an efficient manner through continuous improvement with the objective of helping businesses achieve operational excellence.

 Follow these principles when implementing a Lean Project Management framework:

• Create a value stream map to illustrate and analyse the current project process
•  Determine value from your customer’s perspective
• Ensure the stages of value creation happen in a consistent sequence so that the project flows smoothly
• Continually improve in the pursuit of operational excellence

 

Being lean means being able to pivot quickly when necessary. Introducing Lean Management into your project gives you a straightforward map to significant process improvement. It aligns the entire team around business goals, provides transparency and predictability. You will be able to run the projects with less rework and complexity, deliver even better results for your clients and free up time for your team to focus only on important tasks. Using Lean and Six Sigma techniques, your team will deliver projects on time, on budget, and exceed customer expectations.