Seven-waste framework of waste identification and elimination for computer-based administrative work

PurposeThis paper tries to generalize business process improvement (BPI) methodology. It utilizes the seven-waste framework as an essential step in the methodology. While the seven-waste concept is usually applied for manufacturing activities, this paper tries to explore the applicability of it to office-work activities. Also, this paper demonstrates that information technology can be used as a tool for reducing waste in the office-work.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive literature review of BPI methodology studies was conducted in order to propose systematic flowcharts to represent the sequence of processes involved in each step of BPI methodology. The proposed flowcharts are applied to a case study in supply chain planning and allocation planning at a manufacturing company. The seven-waste framework is designed as part of the step, in which equivalency between the definition of waste found on the production floor and waste found in office work is presented.FindingsThe BPI methodology generally follows five steps: initialization, selection, design, implementation and evaluation. The seven-waste framework is effectively applied in the selection step. The case study shows that information technology can be used as a tool in business process improvement to reduce waste in the business process.Practical implicationsThe case study indicates that the proposed framework and methodology are proven able to reduce the three key performance indicators. They are the number of steps from 54 to 24 (55% reduction), processing time from 890 min to 313.5 min (64% reduction) and the number of the manual process from 41 to 17 (59% reduction).Originality/valueThis paper proposes a generalization of BPI methodology, the seven-waste framework in the selection step of the BPI methodology, the seven-waste concept in office-work activity and the use of information technology for BPI by reducing waste in office-work activity.