March 2008 press releases - AMTEC wins two key 'Lean' engagements in the public sector

With two consultancy engagements won this month and growing interest from the public sector, AMTEC Consulting is reporting a sharp upturn in requirements for its skills in business process improvement, particularly in Lean and Six Sigma.

"Pressure on resources and demands for greater efficiency, against a backdrop of rising expectations for improved services, are the chief reasons why many organisations are now considering these business improvement tools and techniques", says Mark Edmonds, Principal Consultant in AMTEC's Business Performance practice.

"Lean Working is all about improving services through more efficient delivery, by reducing or eliminating 'process waste' - only producing what is needed, when it is needed, with the minimum amount of materials, equipment, labour and space. Lean is well-proven in the private sector and we are now starting to see similar results in the public sector," he adds.

In the first recent engagement, AMTEC's lean expertise will be deployed at an MOD agency to support a major business transformation programme. Working with customers and internal stakeholders, AMTEC is modelling the 'end-to-end' business processes in the agency's operations division to achieve significant business improvement through adoption of the Lean Sigma toolkit.

The second engagement centres on driving improvements and efficiencies in the procurement and contracting function of a Government agency. Against an increasingly tight budget position, the agency conducted an internal review, which concluded that there may be opportunities for more efficient process improvement. Through this pilot exercise AMTEC is introducing the lean principles and transferring skills to staff, who will be seeking to replicate the benefits across other areas of the organisation.

AMTEC Consulting's team of business process experts are trained and qualified in implementing lean tools and techniques and also bring expertise in related areas, such as business transformation, performance management and improvement. The team is deployed across central government, local government, health and defence sectors.

To find out how we can help you to achieve sustainable performance improvement, please contact Mark Edmonds, Principal Consultant at AMTEC Consulting.

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Lean is a set of tools and techniques designed to reduce and eliminate waste or non-value added activity in any given process and across any given sector. The fundamental aim is to provide a way to do more with less, while coming closer to providing customers or users with exactly what they want. An important distinction is that lean focuses on creating value and capacity rather than eliminating jobs in the name of efficiency.

Six sigma is a measure of quality that strives for near perfection, adopting a data-driven approach that systematically eliminates defects. Unlike lean systems, six sigma has only been in existence for about 10 years. There are two methodologies: Improvement of existing processes (looking for incremental improvement) and development of new processes or products.