Lean approach in service business is in children’s shoe yet. The expression “lean” was created by Womack in the 80’s. The origin goes back to Japan into Toyota factory. The place where TPS=Toyota Production System was born that can be considered as the cradle of lean. It was all started after the II world war in the automotive industry. This approach and management philosophy was later on copied by many automotive industries and other manufacturing industries such as food industry, electronics, pharmacy, etc.
How about lean approach in service business?
Can this approach be useful in service business? One of the main element of lean approach is the customer focus. Another main element is productivity increase by continuous process improvement. There are many elements worth mentioning, however these two are already enough to see that lean can be useful in any industries and in service business as well. Any business can benefit of higher productivity and satisfied customers. There is always room to improve productivity and customer’s satisfaction. Lean approach in service business is at the beginning of the journey. There are many areas where lean stepped in example in bank sectors, at insurance companies, aviation, health insurance, rescue work, etc.
So the answer is that lean can be used in any industry and service business as well. To improve processes, increase profitability, increase customer’s satisfaction can be useful for any business regardless to its size or category.
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