• Story of Alison and Sarah both being diagnosed with cancer -
• From finding the lump to diagnoses - difference of 500x faster for Sarah
• This is lean is a book about a new form of efficiency - 'flow efficiency'
• Flow efficiency focuses on the amount of time it takes from identifying a need to satisfying a need.
• Flow efficiency, how its created, and why various decisions improve or worsen flow efficiency.
• How and why organizations are actually wasting resources when they think they are being efficient.
• Lean is one of the worlds most widespread management concepts, definitions of the concept are incredibly inconsistent.

From resource focus to customer focus

• Resource efficiency and flow efficiency.
• Resource efficiency
• Most traditional and most common
• Focuses on efficiently using the resources that add value within an organization.
• Flow efficiency
• Focuses on the unit that is processed in the organization.
• There are important differences between resource and flow efficiency.

Resource Efficiency

• The traditional form of efficiency
• Involves utilizing resources as much as possible.
• Industrial development has been built around increasing the utilization of resources.
• Basic principle in industrial development is to divide an incoming job into smaller tasks - which are carried out by different individuals.
• Most common way of looking at efficiency.
• Continues to dominate the way in which organizations in different industries are organized, controller and managed.
• Resource efficiency focuses on the resources an organization needs in order to produce a product or deliver a service.
• Resource efficiency is a measurement of how much a resource is utilized in relation to a specific time period.
• From an economic perspective - it makes sense to strive for the most efficient possible use of resources.
• Opportunity cost is the loss from not utilizing resources to the fullest.

Flow Efficiency

• Creating an organization that is organized around a specific need requires all staff to work together.
• We define flow efficiency as a new form of efficiency
• Flow efficiency focuses on 'the unit' processed in an organization.
• The form of efficiency the focus is on the unit as it flows through the organization  - the flow unit
• Flow efficiency is a measurement of how much a flow unit is processed during a specific time period.
• The time period is defined from the time a need is identified to the time it was satisfied.
• Important - the time during which the flow unit receives value.
• Is the unit receiving value or standing still

What route to take?

• Which is best? Resource or Flow Efficiency
• Understand how processes work -
• Flow efficiency is created through processes -
• A process is a collection of activities that, together, create a path for and fulfil the need of a flow unit

Processes are central to flow efficiency

• Flow efficiency is created through an organizations processes
• All organizations have processes.
• Value to the unit 'value add' - no value 'non-value-add'
• Flow efficiency is about deleting all the non-value-add.

Processes are defined from the flow unit's perspective.

• Process must be defined from the units perspective.
• Defining the process from the flow unit's perspective is important.