Increasing value add in white collar work using lean methods

The efficient indirect office work brings competitive advantage for companies in a rapidly changing business environment. The direct work methods in factory floors have been developed already for decades, but the office work is an area where the potential to improve the value add has not been studied and utilized systematically so far. The first objective of the thesis work is to find useful method for identifying and managing value add using literature. The usefulness of the method is validated in the case company`s environment. The second objective of the work is to understand what kind of effort is required to create more efficient target setting for the white collar employees. The operative level targets should be linked more tightly to the company strategy. Lean methods are selected as a tool for the improvement, since they are widely used in all kinds of industries and they are already familiar in other functions in the case company. Based on the literature review, suitable improvement methods are selected. The core of the lean is to identify the value add of a customer and eliminate the waste. Also visual control, cross functional work team, flow office and continuous improvement are used. The methods are tested in one production line and the results and feedback indicate that methods are useful in the studied environment.