Manufacturing and service related businesses are heavily dependent on office and administrative processes, which can add up to 60 percent to all the costs associated with meeting customer demand. Applying lean techniques to the office must begin with a new definition of waste, backed by a set of techniques designed to eliminate waste and streamline nonvalue-adding activities. In Creating the Ultimate Lean Office, the definition of waste in the office goes one step further than the lean manufacturing definition, because any office activity that adds value or is necessary to perpetuate the business is considered waste, if it is still manually performed when it can be cost-effectively automated. The technique employed to eliminate this waste of manually performing required activities is referred to as administration automation. It permits users to design processes to meet the needs of their environments, which are then automated without, in the majority of cases, changing source code. This book, in the hands of a business process improvement team applying due diligence, can create a lean office that can compete vigorously against the best organizations in the world.