Lean on HR: Explorative study on wastesin the Human Resources Flow

Abstract: The Lean concept has become an increasingly popular tool for service companies seeking to improve their process flows, hence the development of Lean Service in addition to Lean Manufacturing. This thesis attempts to take Lean another step further by moving from the process flow in the service industry to observe the Human Resource flow. We seek to apply the concept on Human Resources (HR), so far an unexplored field within Lean. The aim of this thesis is to form a comprehensive list of wastes that occur on an individual level within organisations. Our findings provide a framework for an inefficient workday as well as a list of 11 wastes. These wastes were furthergrouped into individual, co-operational and structural issues. Comparisons with Lean service wastes show a lot of similarities. Comparisons with other management literature also show that similar findings have been found in other areas than Lean.