| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this research paper is to study the potential impact of Lean Management principles on a service-providing company. Lean Management was originally developed for manufacturing companies when it was first designed in Japan, in Toyota, a car-making company. Lean Management was developed primarily to cut cost and help Toyota achieve its rock-solid sustainability. More specifically, the research seeks to examine whether lean principles can benefit a service-oriented company, or not.
In order to find the results for the problem topic, first I want to find out whether there is such thing as “Lean Service”. Further, I want to look into, what does the critiques say about Lean Service? Simultaneously research for, transferability of Lean principles transferrable to a service company? To make this research more focused, a service-providing company is chosen, known as Follo Taxi. Follo Taxi is a midsize regional cab company in Norway, which does not have Lean implemented currently. The research paper also focuses on the counterarguments for lean service. Even thou the problem topic, Lean Service, is quite “new”, there are some prior studies written by researchers and intellectuals. Several previous studies are included in this research to build a relevant theoretical background that can with the reader an insight on the ongoing debate on Lean Service. In order to understand the challenges in a service company, qualitative data was gathered.
The qualitative data was collected, through open interviews from different groups of stakeholders. These three groups were, the management, employees and customers. Data was then cross-analyzed, specifically to create an analyses and discuss resource usage, effectiveness & efficiency. The interviews were conducted on one-on-one bases to maintain the interviewee’s comfort level and anonymity. Then I coded the data to study the types of wastages that could occur in a service company. Since it is a qualitative study, stakeholder’s personal views, comments and feelings were crucial to consider.
After the data gathering and studying relevant theory, four essential lean principles were selected to be used in a service company. 1) Value Stream Mapping, 2) Just-In-Time, 3) Production Balancing, and 4) 5S Standardization. These four elements, originally borrowed from Lean Management to Lean Service, can benefit a fully service-oriented company. Value Stream
Mapping can help a service company with defining its value, creating a smooth value flow stream & considering pull-system and striving for perfection. Just-In-Time focuses on delivering the product on time and cutting cost, and Production Balancing seeks to prevent over- and underproduction. Whereas, 5S standardization concentrates on making processes standardized, simplified, cleaned, sorted out and finally yet importantly it seeks to make the procedures sustainable. The final discussion wanders around the significance of these four Lean principles in a service company. | nb_NO |