Lean Auditing. Paterson James C.

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      The Kano model highlights an insight many will recognize: a given amount of time and effort may have a hugely different impact on customer satisfaction. In other words: effort and added value are not always linked in a linear way. Indeed, sometimes providing less can result in a more satisfied customer (e.g. a concise report compared to a longer one).

      Thinking about what the customer wants through a Kano approach is central to lean auditing. The aim is to gain a deeper appreciation of what each of the different stakeholders of internal audit want and – just as importantly – what they do not want.

      GEMBA

      “Gemba” is the Japanese word for the real place (e.g. the place where a news event takes place). In the context of lean it usually means the factory floor or workplace. A key lean technique is to “Go Look See” what is really going on (known as the Gemba Walk). This is the way any waste can be identified, and this is also the place where opportunities for improvement might be identified.

      There are some similarities between the Gemba Walk and the western management notion of “management by walking about”, with lean emphasizing the importance of:

      • Engaging with what is actually going on when analysing issues or difficulties, with an emphasis on facts rather than opinions; and

      • Ensuring that staff and managers pay close attention to what is going on, on a day-to-day basis, as a way of driving improvements in effectiveness and efficiency.

      Shigeo Shingo, one of the leading lean practitioners from Toyota sums up the lean Gemba mindset:

      “Get a grip on the status quo. The most magnificent improvement scheme would be worthless if your perception of the current situation is in error.”

      Gemba has a great affinity with internal audit, since it is all about looking at the reality of what is happening. The challenge for auditors is to apply this approach to their own ways of working. A good example of a Gemba approach would be to pay attention to the difference between how an audit manager or CAE would summarize the audit process (or how it is written in an audit manual), and what it is actually like to carry out an audit assignment in practice.

      Value Stream Mapping

      In order to improve the way that activities and processes are carried out to deliver value, lean offers a range of tools and techniques to help visualize what is happening so that processes and activities can be improved. Specific approaches include:

      • SIPOC mapping

      SIPOC refers to Supplier, Input, Process, Output, and Customer and is a framework that can be used to breakdown a process;

In an internal audit context, a number of the key SIPOC elements are set out in Figure 3.2.

      • Deployment flowcharts (or Swim Lane diagrams)

Figure 3.2 The SIPOC model as applied to an audit assignment (simplified)

      Which can be used to illustrate, amongst other things, the roles of different functions in a process.

      Process mapping is a technique familiar to many in internal audit. When applied to internal audit processes it can be a powerful way of drawing out a range of improvement opportunities in audit planning, assignment delivery and the process of drafting, editing and rewriting audit reports.

      IDENTIFYING WASTE (MUDA)

      Lean principles regard waste (or Muda in Japanese) as being anything a customer would not want to pay for. No matter how normal difficulties, delays or waste seem, lean demands that we pursue waste free ways of working. However, Shigeo Shingo observed:

      “The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.”

      Indeed, much of my work with auditors starts with helping them to notice waste in audit activities that seems so normal it has become invisible.

      Lean defines the normal waste items that so often get missed. Taichii Ohno of Toyota suggests seven key areas of waste in a production context:

      • The waste of overproduction;

      • The waste of waiting;

      • The waste of unnecessary motions;

      • The waste of transporting;

      • The waste of over-processing, or inappropriate processing;

      • The waste of unnecessary inventory;

      • The waste of defects.

      In a service context, other forms of waste include:

      • The waste of making the wrong product;

      • The waste of untapped human potential;

      • Excessive information and communication;

      • The waste of time;

      • The waste of inappropriate systems;

      • Wasted energy, resources and other natural resources;

      • The waste of (excessive) variation;

      • The waste of no follow-through;

      • The waste of knowledge.

      Other difficulties that can interrupt the flow of value to the customer include:

      • Unevenness, or Mura in Japanese;

      • Overburden, or Muri in Japanese.

      To address the various types of waste that can arise, lean provides a range of tools and techniques, including:

      Heijunka

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