Quick Guide: Process Thinking in Operations Management

The blog post


James Womack and Dan Jones are the founders of the Lean
Enterprise Institute and the Lean Enterprise Academy (UK),
respectively. Their book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and
Create Wealth in Your Corporation, is considered by some to be
the bible of Lean Manufacturing. It was initially published in
1996 based on their in-depth study of Toyota’s fabled Toyota
Production System (TPS).


Womack and Jones realized that every business output results from
a process. Process thinking in operations
management requires leaders and workers to view the
organization as a set of related processes that work together for
a common goal rather than a group of departments supporting a
specific function.
These ideas are widely used by organizations in every sector to
better design, track, and optimize business operations. Companies
have not done away with functional departments. Instead, they
view the work departments do differently. Departments don't exist
on their terms. Each receives inputs from other functions and
provides outputs that other departments must consume to complete
their work.


In short, each function or person contributes to one or more
business processes. So, instead of managing departments, process
thinking means managing entire operations. A process might move
through a series of teams or functions, each with its
requirements, but the purpose of each one is to create value for
the customer, which is what matters.