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The Paperless Office

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One of the most boring VSM events I ever participated was a VSM on an archiving process.  I shouldn’t say it was boring because it was a VSM on a business process, which “experts” tend to stay away from, so it was a good learning experience.  The best outcome of the event was the removal of several archiving cabinets (from a 5S kaizen burst) and the surprising amount of savings generated after not sending so much stuff to Iron Mountain.  It turns out that in the current state, people were archiving all sorts of papers, even printed emails.

The most important question asked was “what is the company’s filing policy?”, and “what is “the regulatory agency filing policy?”  Once you know that, all the preconceived notion of what people think needs to be filed goes out the window.

I’ve noticed people sometimes can’t let go of the poor habit of collecting paper.  It’s as if there’s a job security in filing.  When I question why certain documents need to be filed, I hear “maybe there’s an audit”, but no one can produce the company policy to support the the audit argument.

During a recent SAP implementation, a consulting team, told me the office invoice would be sent to the printer overnight so that it could be mailed to the customer on the following day! The news was given to me as if a great automation accomplishment had been achieved.  I explained to the consultant, that I expected a solution that involved no printing and no licking of stamps.  It was very disappointing because the kid was half my age and here I was telling him that we are in the age of technology.

The idea of a paperless office will most of the time be resisted and it takes continuous questioning as to why things are being printed and filed until the employee “gets it”.  If successful, a paperless office is one of the leanest accomplishments in a business process.

I highly encourage you to ask your CI manager to conduct a VSM event on archiving!

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