The standardization of management routines is a powerful driver for the efficiency of organizations.
One of the pillars of Lean Management, originating from the Toyota Production System, is standard work. Standard work (or standardized work) is, by definition, the best, easiest, and safest way currently known to perform a task. When defined correctly, standard work reduces variation and ensures consistency and quality.
Initially, this concept was applied in manufacturing to repetitive production tasks and was later extended to quality control, maintenance, and logistics. Over time, standard work began to be successfully applied to administrative, commercial, and after-sales service tasks, often overcoming people's natural resistance to change. These applications targeted value-added and support tasks performed by front-line personnel, such as factory operators, technicians, or administrative staff.
Since standard work is, by definition, the best way to accomplish a task, why not apply it to managerial work?
Managerial routines and tasks should be carried out in the most efficient way possible ensuring that action is taken at the appropriate level of responsibility, without any gaps or overlaps, that each manager or supervisor takes care of what is important and finally, bringing agility to decision making.
We have been helping our clients structure, define and standardize their management routines, with a strong impact on organizational efficiency improvement.
The main steps of this process are as follows:
Survey of current management routines and tasks
Analysis of their added value
Identification of redundancies, overlaps, and gaps
Clarification of the objective of each task
Definition of who should do what
Review of consistency and alignment (both vertical and horizontal)
Standardization of different management tasks and routines
Definition of checkpoints and gemba walks
Definition of synchronized schedules across the organization
Design of visual management systems
Implementation
Monitoring and adjustment
This process has been applied in organizations of various industries and sizes. Once set and implemented, standard managerial routines will naturally be subject to continuous improvement.
Comments