We are in the beginning stages of introducing Lean to our office environments (i.e. - sales, customer service, marketing, accounting, HR, etc). There are already some rumblings about how "they're different, etc". While I am not concerned about this as everyone, even in manufacturing, thinks they are different I would like to find some resources people could look at to better understand how lean office works.

Can anyone recommend any books or training materials that deal directly with office implementation? Something with examples or case studies would be great so that I can help these folks start to visualize how we can impact the business if we approach this with an open mind.

Also, in about a year we will be building a new office building and we have started to discuss how to "lean" our new office layout. Does anyone know of any books, websites, etc that focus on how benchmark lean organizations layout their offices? I have heard about things such as no walls, no cubes higher than 4 feet, etc but that is about it.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Harold

Any help or ideas would be appreciated as well.Perhaps this old thread (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=8393) on the subject could be useful then? I think there are some further links in it.

/Claes

Check out "Office Kaizen" by William Lareau. It is pretty basic, but decent.

Here's some resources:


Value Stream Management for the Lean Office (http://www.amazon.com/Value-Stream-Management-Lean-Office/dp/1563272466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250791027&sr=1-1)

There is also a complete section on the Lean Office at the Productivity Press (http://www.productivitypress.com/shopping_cart/categories/categories_products.asp?parent_id=34)website.

Wayne