The Lean Daily Management System (LDMS) is a powerful Lean and continuous improvement tool that is becoming increasingly popular.  LDMS is a management approach and a tool set to help organizations improve their process areas.   Places where LDMS can help include:

• Simplifying communication between workgroups, customers, and suppliers
• Focusing on identifying and solving problems vs. creating workarounds
• Ensuring work group activities are aligned with those of the larger organization
• Establishing targets and measuring improvement
• Engaging employees and promoting teamwork

As is the case with many of the core tenets of formal quality programs, such as Lean, Six-Sigma, and TQM, the Lean Daily Management System fits in well with some of the traditional Shared Services foundational building blocks of process improvement, performance measurement, and a problem-solving mindset.  As a result, LDMS can be a great fit for the majority of Shared Services operations as they seek to take their organization to the next level of performance.

Recently, a major consumer goods company with a very mature Shared Services operation was featured on a Peeriosity Peercast^TM in the Accounts Payable (P2P) research area.  They shared their experiences in implementing a Daily Management System, with focus placed on how they used it to improve the often challenging area of invoice troubleshooting.  Some of the key benefits they realized from carrying out this initiative are as follows:

• Improved Partnership – Improved collaboration across Purchase-to-Pay stakeholders due to one consistent global approach to open Items.

• Improved Accountability – Each invoice is assigned to an organization and to an individual owner with priority agreed upon.

• Better Transparency – Actionable reporting and escalation. Drives visibility to underlying issues, but doesn’t always fix them (price/qty. blocks).

• End to End Efficiencies – Eliminates rework and the chasing of items between organizations and duplication of work.

• Sustainable Results – Reduced cycle times via increased transparency.

The iPolling^TM questions related to this particular Peercast^TM provide some excellent insight regarding the use of the Lean Daily Management System at Shared Services operations across the globe.   Reviewing the results, the first question focused on the likelihood that Shared Services organizations would be implementing LDMS within the next 1-2 years.  37% responded that they were either “Highly Likely” or “Somewhat Likely” to implement, with another 26% indicating that they have already completed the implementation and have plans to expand it.  Just 37% of the companies said that they had no plans to implement LDMS in the near future.

The second poll question asked to what extent the participating companies planned to utilize the Lean Daily Management System within their Shared Services organization over the next 1-2 years.  The results varied quite a bit, with 26% saying they expected to have extensive utilization throughout Shared Services, with another 16% indicating that targeted utilization of LDMS in traditionally heavy transaction process areas would be the primary focus.  The remaining 16% were planning on piloting the use of LDMS in a few areas to see how the rollout would go, before doing a full implementation.

Here are a few of the poll comments related to LDMS from members:

• We have a Lean 6 Sigma program that started a year ago, including aspects of visual management and daily team meetings to manage performance. The program is being rolled out in our Shared Services and being extended outside the boundaries of administrative processes.
  

• We have done previous Six Sigma reviews by the individual process before, but we just currently do not have anything planned for 2015.
  

• Targeted utilization in HR Shared Services where transactional processes exist. 
  

• Our HR Shared Services group has begun the transition to Lean Enterprise focused on the elimination of waste and process efficiencies in the heavily transactional areas of HR Data Management, Payroll Processing, and Benefits Administration.
  

• We are in the midst of being acquired. While we’ve been working to implement a formal six sigma function within our Global Shared Services organization, that is subject to initiatives prioritized by our new parent.

What is the status of utilizing the Lean Daily Management System in your Shared Services operation?  With 58% of the companies participating in our research using or exploring the use of this tool, should the use of LDMS be a priority for your Shared Services operation?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

“Peercasts^TM” are private, professionally facilitated webcasts that feature leading member company experiences on specific topics as a catalyst for broader discussion.  Access is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from attending or accessing discussion content.  Members can see who is registered to attend in advance, with discussion recordings, supporting polls, and presentation materials online and available whenever convenient for the member.  Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail^TM, attendees can easily communicate at any time with other attending peers by selecting them from the list of registered attendees.

“iPolling^TM” is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from participating or accessing content. Members have full visibility of all respondents and their comments. Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail^TM, members can easily communicate at any time with others who participated in iPolling.