That's the story I get from my corporate travel office, trying to get a copy of an invoice for a flight. “The queue for accounting is quite long, that's why it takes up to 48 hours to get. Once they process it, it's out immediately, but there's a long wait.” So about 10 seconds of “Value Added” time and a 48 hour queue. A typical value stream map metric, I suppose. That's about 0.3% VA.
In the lingo of “Lean Solutions”, I'm having to request this copy because my laptop crashed (thank you Windows 2000) — the laptop provider did not “solve my problem completely,” meaning me having a working laptop. There is quite a value stream of the laptop service company, the laptop brand marketer, the company that actually built the laptop, and Microsoft.
The travel company didn't provide value “when I want it” with that 48 hour queue. Ah, the frustrations of viewing the world through a lean lens. The travel company, of course, thinks it's perfectly acceptable to have a 48 hour queue. “You get what you tolerate,” I think a Toyota person says that quite often. To the service providers out there – you can do better!
Update: It took more than a WEEK to get the document via email
What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn.
Don't want to miss a post or podcast? Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.
Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.