Paperwork Simulation - Lean Office

From the state of Minnesota Lean website, the very same site that brought you Standard Pig, comes a simple free paperwork simulation lean game, perfect for your Lean office roll-out.


The simulation shows the difference between batch processing paperwork and one piece flow, using worksheets that require simple addition. Separated into teams of four, the "front line worker" adds several numbers together, the "lead worker" takes that total and adds some more numbers, while the third and fourth team members check the work.

The beauty of this game is that it is so basic. The key is to make sure that at each stage the team member must process five worksheets at a time (a batch!). In the next run, the teams may reduce the batch to one at a time and reap the benefits! From batch to pull in ten minutes. One person, a timekeeper, tracks the improvement.

Other suitable lean office games, like Making Pamphlets, require a little more time and creativity, which is great for a longer training session. This lean simulation can easily be squeezed into a short kaizen event, or presentation.

All five worksheets are provided in .doc format, with a guide for running the game included. Of course, the five worksheets contain different calculations. They don't make it easy for you! Since the documents are editable, I recommend changing the calculations for subsequent rounds, so the teams don't just go by memory.

You can access the Paperwork Lean Simulation .pdf file by clicking here. 

The Minnesota government also has a very useful lean resource page:

http://mn.gov/admin/lean/resources/ci-tools/index.jsp