How a Lean Business Strategy Can Improve Your Profits

by Simon Hopes Author

For almost every type of business, the main goal is to become more profitable. In order to turn over higher levels of profit, it’s often absolutely necessary for a business to become more efficient. However, even in the most structured of organizations, many workplace processes can become disorganized and chaotic, damaging the company’s level of efficiency. Although most processes don’t start out this way, small changes occur over time, leading up to the development of workarounds which often don’t have any strategic thought given to them or any consideration as to how they will affect the big picture. However, by using lean principles, businesses can improve their efficiency and in turn improve profits.

Focusing on the Customer

One of the main principles of the lean method is to focus on the customer. During lean Six Sigma training, students learn a significant amount about why it is hugely important to make the customer your sole focus and learn about them, their needs and wants. Ultimately, the main thing that customers want is good value, which occurs when the quality of products and service is high compared to the price they pay. One of the best ways to use the lean method to achieve better efficiency and profitability is to determine what it is that your customers want and how you can provide it better, faster and even cheaper. Click here to learn more about lean Six Sigma training online.

Track Performance

Figuring out how the work gets done is a key component of the lean business method. Regular performance tracking helps you to understand where you or your employees are going wrong, where things are working well and what can be changed or improved. But, for many businesses, during the day to day grind little thought is given as to how to work is being done – it just gets done. Taking a step back and evaluating your performance and working out exactly which steps are being taken can help you to determine which changes and improvements can be made in order to achieve better profitability and efficiency.

Utilizing Employees

The lean method of business holds the belief that the best person to improve the process is the person who carries the process out. You can significantly increase the efficiency and profitability of your organization by utilizing your employees’ skill-sets to their full potential – could somebody be doing more? By allowing your employees to make suggestions in order to improve processes, they will likely have time to take on higher level work in the future, resulting in you getting more achieved in less time and at a lower cost.

One of the biggest mistakes made by business owners, managers and employees is to allow the organization to get stuck in a rut. By using the principles of the lean method of business, you will be able to track your progress, determine what is going well and what is not, and improve levels of customer satisfaction in order to improve your efficiency and profitability levels.