You Need 4 Essential Mind Shifts to Run Lean and Avoid Waste in Digitalization Projects
The stream of value creation is the main perspective of lean management on production. The aim is to optimize processes iteratively as far as possible. This approach is not applicable to innovation and development processes like digital transformation without adaptions. It has to be expanded and lifted to a more general level.
The approach to reduce and avoid waste as far as possible can also be fruitful for digitalization projects. In contrast to traditional lean management the focus lies on development, not on production. This difference leads to some paradoxes, i.e. the fact that failures play an important role in development while being the object of elimination in production processes.
Every step of a digital project can create waste. In many cases it is difficult to tell in advance what will create value and what waste because many things are experimental. Therefore it won't make sense to examine each step. The more effective way is to look at systematic errors. Here are some of them and how to circumvent them.
Four essential mind shifts are required: a different approach to understand customers, a culture of cooperation, agile project teams and scientific-like experimentation.
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published: January 19, 2025, © Uwe Weinreich