Focusing on customer value.
It sounds obvious when you first think about it – waste is the enemy of efficiency. But the more you take that thinking to heart, the more the scale of the challenge becomes apparent. It’s called ‘lean’ thinking. And while it’s not exclusive to KAEFER, our vision to ‘eliminate the energy waste’ sits very well within the framework of lean and its corresponding way of acting.
Simply put, lean means creating more value for our clients with fewer resources. And this is achieved by generating as close to zero waste as possible by optimising processes and continuously improving them.
The idea is to waste less time, effort and materials. This allows us to achieve higher levels of health, safety and efficiency by getting our services right the first time, while meeting all quality requirements. Lean is also a cornerstone of our RED strategy, as it makes us recognised, more efficient and different.
To apply the four principles of lean - flow, takt, pull and zero defects - we employ the following seven points:
1. |
Challenge conventional beliefs – without challenge there can be no progress. |
2. |
Experiment – try it or you’ll never know. |
3. |
Tolerate failure – improvement requires patience. |
4. |
Trust – improvement cannot result in loss of jobs. |
5. |
Work as a team – total optimisation rather than local (individual) optimisation. |
6. |
Be flexible – rigid structures/policies will limit progress. |
7. |
Be disciplined – stick to the standards. |
