One of the most important tenets of lean methodologies is one that many people overlook. It isn’t a fun-to-say word translated Japanese and it doesn’t result in reduced inventories or increased throughput. In fact, it may increase inventory and reduce throughput if you do it right. But even the most die-hard lean practitioner agrees that this is a key principle:

Focus on those activities that create value in the mind of the customer. 

Customers may provide you with a forecast, but they still expect you to respond quickly when actual demand looks nothing like the forecast they gave you. All they know is they want it, and they want it now. Customers may tell you they love your product, except could they have special labels or unique colors or extra testing or…The list goes on in an endless litany familiar to anyone who deals with customers. And for a business to be successful, the answer must always be yes.

Often that means having extra inventory on hand, whether in finished goods for quick shipment or in component stock for manufacturing flexibility. Does this violate the lean principle of minimal inventory delivered just in time? Why yes, it does. But it’s absolutely necessary to be able to satisfy the customer, so companies sacrifice a little and keep inventory on hand ”just in case.” Customer requests may mean a less productive shop floor, as production priorities shift to meet current needs, but customer requests also mean that customers are buying your product. You have a chance to make them a customer for life if you meet or exceed their expectations—even if it means sacrificing the purity of your lean initiatives. 

Where Lean and Customer Service Come Together

The place where lean and customer service come together in wholehearted unity is in reducing non-value added activities. Taiichi Ohno defined non-value added as anything that doesn’t add value in the eyes of the customer, so the more of these unnecessary activities you identify and eliminate, the more lean your operation will become—and you’ll still be delighting your customers. 

Applying Lean Beyond the Production Floor

Most lean initiatives start and end on the production floor, but the techniques are equally applicable to the front office and to every area of the business. Take a hard look at your order processing procedures to see if you can eliminate some steps. Reducing your order cycle provides an immediate reduction in lead-time, which is sure to make customers happy. Apply lean thinking to product design. Your products will enjoy faster time to market with no loss of innovation. Look at how you manage ECNs. Customers will receive better quality products and new features faster—another source of delight. Even invoicing and cash receipts improve with a dose of lean thinking, as invoices become more accurate and cash flows smooth out because of fewer questions and challenges. 

Lean methodologies are terrific operational tools for improving efficiency and reducing inventory, but applied to other areas of the business they can also become your best tool for increasing customer satisfaction.