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The "Paper-less" Office or an
Office With "Less Paper"?
I have now
had my annual clear-out, I spent many hours sorting through,
throwing out and shredding bags of paper stored in my home
office, which started me thinking about the paperless office
promise of the 80's. Did I need to keep all of that paper? Did I
need to print all those e-mails?
Now as a lean office specialist you would think that I would be
able to be very organized with all this 'stuff', and generally I
am. However when it comes to reading masses of text on screen I
go to sleep, I am a scribbler, I need to highlight, I must make
notes to keep my brain interested. So I still have masses of
paper ...
I can however console myself that I have in fact saved lots of
time and money on processes, but on paper? Well yes! ... and no
...
automating invoice approval systems has saved a lot of copy
documents being sent out, on line expenses has saved having copy
documents. However with e-mailing customer statements you may be
saving time, but paper? I increasingly am forced to accept
e-mail bills to avoid being charged for paper copies. The
outcome is that do not analyse my bills as well if I cannot
highlight and scribble, so I print them off ... paper saved nil, OK
maybe an envelope!
What would happen if our new year's resolution this year was to
save paper and what are the reasons for going paperless? Do we
go paperless to save trees, or ... to electronically organize
information or... for a better 5S-ed office or... to save office
expense?
Well cost is difficult to justify, because paper is a relatively
cheap resource, but what if we looked at whether the culture
change could actually be beneficial in reducing waste and saving
time.
The effect of culture...
As we all know process changes can be made relatively easily but
culture change takes a lot longer and maybe it is time to try a
change of approach however uncomfortable that feels. "Paperless"
is more a mindset than a skill, but we can learn new skills and
change that mindset if we really want to.
In 2009, I taught myself how to type without looking at the
keyboard and although this is still uncomfortable (and as yet no
quicker) in time I know it will be worthwhile as I now have the
"know how" to type faster I just need to practice! But doesn't
this apply to everything we learn? Whoever said "everything is
complicated before it is easy" had a point.
One
recommended alternative solution t o overprinting seems to be
the use of dual monitors, the logic being that when reviewing 2
documents you need to have a printed copy of one and the other
on screen, never tried this myself but can see how it would
work. Another uncomfortable change in culture for me to try...
What does
paperless mean now?
Those companies that claim to be paperless typically follow the
same pattern
1) Print their document or receive it in the post.
2) Scan and save to hard drive.
3) Email & post document.
4) File paper document.....
The result? - Everyone just seems to have a duplicate of the
paper document...just in case!
Efficient became synonymous with "paperless" in the late 80's
when PC's became more common for everyday businesses. We stopped
using old fashioned typewriters, making errors, throwing away
poorly typed documents, and kept all customer correspondence in
one customer file. Now it is more efficient to type a letter or
proposal and print without errors. It is possible to save that
electronic file (though a hard copy is typically printed), and
any modifications can be made quickly for a revised quote or
letter. My belief is that we print more paper now than we ever
wasted typing and filing in fact some statistics suggest that
our paper-usage is 4-5 times greater now that we all have our
own computers and printers.. So perhaps we need to redefine what
we mean by "paperless". To me the "doing with less paper" still
applies, but we have also narrowed the transaction time which to
me is "efficient".
E-mail:- paper friend or foe?
Now to the question of superfast efficient e-mail replacing the
old fashioned memo, surely that is a great step forward... or is
it? Haven't we just increased tenfold the amount of information
(relevant or not)? The answer lies in whether you print your
e-mails. I certainly have a habit of doing this, again because I
like to scribble, and I use it as a priority system in much the
same as the quote "what gets measured gets done", for me "what
can be seen and put in priority piles cannot be ignored!"
In addition to successfully develop the paperless office steps
must be taken to deal with individual's insecurity i.e. we
generate emails to cover our backsides rather than talk to
people. A piece of paper and pen with writing (specifically own
writing) is a form of validation for most people, Information on
physical piece of paper with a signature its worth it's weight
in gold in terms of evidence and legitimacy.
In an open collaborative environment people can collaborate on
the creation of documents in real-time and even in a secure
on-line environment. However, in a hierarchical, punitive
environment, everyone must account for their individual actions
- hence driving the need for evidence, printouts, e-mails, etc.
Hence we come back to the culture change being the driver.
So let's move forward, here is one approach care of Jose Ignacio
Mora:
- Scan paper documents, notes, and receipts using Neat Receipts
(or other package)
- Convert to PDF
- Upload to Google Sites - share as appropriate
- Create hyperlink Index in Google Sites to quickly access
document
- Shred paper and manage electronically from this point forward
- Also, PowerPoint presentations can be saved into Google Docs
presentations - and again quickly accessed the same way as
above.
Along the same lines, Paper-less (I mean, Less-Paper) can be
achieved with two simple rules:
a) only print that which must leave the organisation.
b) immediately scan that which enters the organisation.
This is great and obviously works for Jose, however this
requires a huge change in culture, good analytical set up of
securities, the initial training resource, and not least the
trust of management about abuse of documents held. Is it
worthwhile...well the result will be less paper and less paper
storage. You will probably find an increase in efficiency due to
faster retrieval times to find relevant documents with online
word search, and yes you will probably print it... but saving time
(which is a valuable and costly resource) means you will have a
leaner environment.
To store or not to store?
Making this decision can be done in many ways, one of my
personal favourites is to stop sending monthly reports to see if
anyone asks for them, if no-one asks then it is obviously not
needed, so stop!
We then have
the conundrum of bulk storage versus paying to scan documents,
bulk store is cheap if you do not need access to the documents
and a rigid disposal policy. On the other hand scanning and
electronic storage is more expensive in terms of actual cost,
but if you have scanned all documents at source this is not an
issue. Ongoing? You decide what is best for you...
Please note:- Not one tree was harmed in the production of this
document... yet!
Thanks to, Wesley Bushby, Paul Welch, Stan Willey, Jose Ignacio
Mora, Stan Willey, Ky Baylor, Damien Garnier, Jie Li for
contributing to what was a very interesting discussion.
Deborah Rees
A management accountant, specialist subject - The Lean Office
Lean Synergies
www.leansynergies.co.uk
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