Lean Strategy is traditionally associated with the manufacturing area because, as is known, it takes place and it develops in the industrial context, achieving resounding worldwide success.

“Lean” means efficient and simple processes for business, it means to go back at the very essence of the process itself, to understand which activities are more valuable for the client, removing the wastes and reducing the costs down to the minimum.

In the past few years a great change has started in the business culture: many American companies have already begun to look for high quality standard in Six Sigma methodology and in the efficiency of the slim production, these two principles combined together offer their best and full potential.

So, if Lean Strategy has gained a great success all around the world in the manufacturing sector, why not extend it at other areas, as services for example?

Services go through lots of waste, with the outcome of expensive and long processes : in the last years moreover, the service industry has made its entrance in an extremely competitive context; all private and public companies are about to redefined their own organisations for better client services at lower cost.

“Service” in this context is not limited to the office or administration, but also wider service situations that are not necessarily repetitive, where task time is not applicable, and where task times may be both long and variable. Service in this context could mean anything from a hospital to a university, from an office process to a consultancy, and from a warehouse to field service maintenance. “Service” refers to the service concept or product service bundle, which are all the activities that provide value to the customer along a value stream.