Lean manufacturing in public sector

Applying lean production to the public sector

Governments around the globe need to convey better training, better medicinal services, better benefits, and better transportation administrations. They realize that fretful electorates hope to see change, and quick. Anyway the trusts needed to meet such desires are gigantic especially in the numerous created economies where populaces are maturing and the general population segment's gainfulness hasn't kept pace with that of the private division. The need to get esteem for cash from governments at all levels is accordingly under the spotlight as at no other time. Be that as it may cost-cutting projects that look for investment funds of 1 to 3 percent a year won't be sufficient and now and again may even debilitate the nature of administration.

To address the issue, open segment pioneers are looking with developing enthusiasm at "lean" strategies since quite a while ago utilized as a part of private industry. From the repair of military vehicles to the preparing of salary government forms, from surgery to urban arranging, lean is demonstrating that it can enhance open administrations as well as change them to improve things. Urgently for people in general division, a lean methodology breaks with the predominating view that there must be a tradeoff between the nature of open administrations and the expense of giving them.

The public-sector challenge

A lean system is designed to eliminate waste, variability, and inflexibility, though given the variety and complexity of many processes there can be no one-size-fits-all lean template. The needs of customers and the organization's goals and values drive the design. But some important themes and principles of the lean approach do pose specific challenges for public-sector organizations.

            1)      Taking the customer's perspective

All activities must be tested to ensure that they add value for the customer. But in government departments and other public organizations, putting customers first (even if you could identify them) may be more difficult. 

One reason is a lack of competition. Customers of the government—job seekers or patients, for example—usually have no choice of provider. The demands of the customer, who may never even appear in the office, rarely come into focus. Much of the public sector remains supplier led, not customer led. But this norm could be changing.

Characterizing worth for clients in people in general division can additionally be subtle. Expenses, quality, and lead times are key considerations in a lean framework, yet social worth and the impartial procurement of administrations are harder to measure.

One approach to distinguish and concentrate on the customer is to talk about these issues with the staff, guaranteeing that any change exertion is surrounded considering the client a whole lot. Indeed in techniques, for example, the criminal-equity framework, considering the denounced individual the client is important to reframe and test customary thoughts and methodologies.

2)      Defining and managing end-to-end processes

As in the private segment, the best way to comprehend and deal with a procedure is to perceive how it functions. Yet public sector supervisors don't generally see themselves as regulating or dealing with an "operation," and it is unusual for a solitary individual to be in charge of a whole process. Likewise, top-down focuses on have a tendency to concentrate on a solitary piece of the operation, to the disservice of the procedure overall.

As work processes cut crosswise over hierarchical limits, it might be important to include different divisions or government organizations, potentially with diverse or actually clashing impetuses. Consider the procedure of a trial. A viable methodology must convey the respondent and all the significant case data to court at the opportune time. At least, the exercises of the capturing officer, jail authorities, prosecutors, victimized people, witnesses, and guard attorneys must be facilitated. Disagreements of coordination are regular, prompting deferments, deferred judgments, and high opportunity costs.

To overcome such troubles, chiefs ought to create an imparted understanding of the procedure. In any case contending interests frequently obstructed the general methodology, underscoring the requirement for progressions expanding admirably past the doors of the repair.

3)      Exposing and solving problems

A key characteristic of a lean organization is its ability to improve itself constantly by bringing problems to the surface and resolving them. Here as well the public sector often finds itself in a weaker starting position, with gaps in skills and entrenched mind-sets.

Government reform programs are now under increasing scrutiny, which makes it difficult to uncover problems without embarrassment. A long-tenured manager needs courage to expose the waste that lies within his or her department or the deep-seated nature of its problems, especially if they can be resolved at little or no cost.

After the above considerations, I propose a question that is the lean manufacturing being well utilized in the public sector?

Resources: 

1) http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/public_sector/applying_lean_production_to_the_public_sector

2) http://www.ehow.com/how_7283089_apply-lean-production-public-sector.html