Some sectors have an issue with it not being entirely clear who their customers are and some have suggested reviewing the fundamental definition of waste as a consequence. This was my response on a lean in education forum recently:
"On the matter of redefining MUDA; this is a fundamental philosophy
of lean, if we amend that then it is no longer lean. The whole thing will fall
apart as people will then want to redefine everything else. I do think however
that we can think more imaginatively around the definition of customer leaving
the integrity of the core definition in place.
In education there is a customer or stakeholder web with
several parties pulling value from the system, some in tension. We need
therefore to create a value balanced scorecard that represents this extra layer
of complexity. In process work you could traffic light the different types of
value-add back to the relevant stakeholders.
This situation is not uncommon, I have had discussions with
public sector clients where this very subject has come up; they have the public
pulling value, but also have to provide a statutory requirement to the rule of
law. In the private sector there are issues within value webs i.e. manufacturer
– dealer - consumer, within shared services and outsourcing. This “who is the
customer” is a common thread.
However a key point is that these issues must be thought
through in advance of training or launching a lean initiative else of the first
morning a staff member may well steal the thunder of your programme and
potentially de-rail the whole initiative,"
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