Lean IT

The need for organisations to adopt the principles and practices of Lean IT has never been greater.

As the demand for higher quality (and quantity) IT Services from the business continually grows there is constant pressure on IT to reduce the resources (money and people etc) it requires to deliver these services – i.e. IT is being asked to accomplish more with less - Lean IT helps you to achieve this.

Lean IT is all about ELIMINATING WASTE - where waste is work / activities / practices that add no value to your direct ability to deliver the IT Services that your customer needs. Lean IT focuses you on satisfying the customer by delivering quality IT Services that are just what the customer needs, when the customer needs them, in the amount required, at the right price, while using the minimum amount of resources.

The practices of Lean IT enable you to identify the multitude of activities that take place that add no direct value to your ability to deliver the IT Services that your customer needs. Once you have identified these activities you stop doing them – it is as simple as that! The result is an IT organisation that by eliminating waste and focusing on delivering value to the customer is more effective, and has the capability to deliver more with less (less cost!).

e-Quant have helped a large number of organisations benefit from taking a LEAN IT approach.

By blending well established LEAN principles with the latest in Systems Thinking we have developed a LEAN approach specifically tailored for IT Service provision – e-VAL - which focuses on identifying and eliminating the five specific types of waste that are created and processed during the delivery and support of IT Services, i.e.:
Failure Demand Waste
OverProcessing Waste
OverProduction Waste
Command and Control Waste
Poor Practice Waste

 

To understand more about e-VAL and how e-Quant can help you please take a look at our web site page ‘LEAN IT for IT Service Providers’ (under Areas of Expertise).

Clearing up some points about LEAN IT

Many people get confused about LEAN IT. This section tries to offer some clarification on the main points of confusion.

LEAN IT is NOT Lean Sigma. Although much of LEAN is based on the principles and practices of Lean Sigma there are some key differences between the two methodologies. Without going into detail – LEAN is much wider in scope than Lean Sigma, and places much more emphasis in the role of people within the system / process to drive improvement.

LEAN is all NOT about tools. Yes - there are many tools and techniques associated with LEAN, but LEAN is very definitely not to be found in the tools. The tools are there to help, but they are only od use when used in the correct time in the appropriate way.

You need to modify LEAN when you apply it to the service sector. The origins of LEAN lie in the manufacturing sector. The types of waste, the tools etc were all defined for use within a manufacturing environment. However, although the principles of LEAN apply without question to the service sector, the tools, the types of waste etc do need to be modified. This is what e-Quant have done with e-VAL. Based on LEAN principles we have developed an approach specifically for IT Service provision. With our approach there are specific types of waste (all associated with the provision of IT Services), and techniques to identify this waste.

ITIL is NOT LEAN IT. There is a very common misconception that ITIL is LEAN, or that ITIL and LEAN are essentially the same thing. They are not. Although certain ITIL processes (e.g. Problem Management, Service Level Management) are useful in helping deliver a LEAN transformation, the ITIL framework is not itself a naturally LEAN approach. Indeed one of the leading causes of waste within the delivery and support of IT Services is poorly designed, overly complex and bureaucratic ITIL processes. So if you are using ITIL, then you are likely to be generating and processing significant amounts of waste and you will almost certainly benefit from adopting a LEAN IT approach.

Outsourcing does not remove the need for YOU to take a LEAN IT approach. Many organisations believe that because they have outsourced IT Service provision they no longer need to consider a LEAN IT approach. However, if you failed to undertake a LEAN transformation before the outsourcing took place you will be paying the outsourcer to perform activities that add no value, i.e. you have simply outsourced the generation and processing of waste. In effect you are paying for something that you do not want, need or value!

If you want to know more about Lean IT or how e-Quant can help you use Lean IT to optimise your IT organisation then please contact e-Quant at enquiries@e-quant.co.uk or call on +44 (0)115 966 8375