Achieve greater efficiency by working smarter

When you work more efficiently, you get a lot done and achieve more with less effort and resources. You will work more efficiently by:

• Setting priorities;
• Focusing on the things you find important;
• Planning and dividing your time realistically;
• Delegating where possible;
• Regularly evaluating what is going well and what can be improved and then applying improvements.

The result is that you finish your work earlier and save a lot of time. If you work efficiently as an organisation, you can translate this into lower costs for your customers.

Do you know how to increase your efficiency?

Do you recognise yourself in one of these examples?

“I am a long-distance skater. I get the best results if I skate as efficiently as possible. Of course my condition must be top, but that is no guarantee for speed. I have to transfer all my energy and power to the thin irons. When everything is right, there is an optimal balance between my skating position, the number of strokes I make and the way I put my skates on the ice. Without that balance, I make speed purely on strength and condition. But if I manage to find that balance, I glide almost automatically and I don’t need to use much power to skate very fast.”

“I am a natural chaotic person. I start reading the newspaper, and halfway through I realise that I have to look something up in a folder, the plants need a bath and last night I didn’t feel like tidying up the kitchen after dinner, so I can’t put the plants on the counter. I look around me and see something lying everywhere. An open newspaper, an archive folder, books, etc. I had planned to dust and vacuum, but now I’m cleaning up first and don’t feel like doing any more housework. I hate myself and this hassle costs me a lot of energy. I comfort myself that this is simply ingrained and count my blessings that I have learned (with a lot of effort) in my job to work in a structured way and to systematically work through my list. It saves me a lot of time, energy and frustration. And yet I can’t do that at home. I am (fortunately) not perfect…”

“I work as a lab technician in a hospital analysing the blood of people who have had blood tests. It is important that the results are available quickly, but not at the expense of accuracy. If we miss something or see something that is not there, it can have major consequences for patients’ health. Of course, a lot has already been automated, but that makes it all the more important that I continue to work with concentration and accuracy. A mistake is easily made. I can imagine that in other professions this is less of a problem, but with us it’s not really possible. That is why we have built in good checks.”

Do you know how to increase your efficiency?

The LEANmeter gives insight in how Lean you are already working. You see your strong points and get advice for improvement, individually and as a team.
Complete the LEANmeter and get the right impulse, it only takes 5 minutes of your time.