Lean management, a model for continuous improvement, is more important now than ever before, but few organisations are equipped to embrace the model effectively without assistance. This is according to Charity Mtshali, product manager for Corel MindManager at Axiz, who says organisations are looking to adopt lean management approaches to create value and optimise returns.

“This is particularly important now, as businesses suffered losses during the pandemic. They need to address redundant processes and products, refine and improve their processes, and add what really delivers value,” she says. “Through lean management, they can sit with stakeholders and address what isn’t working and continuously improve processes; and in doing so address significant wasted expenditure and effort.”

She explains that lean management, a term coined in 1988 by John Krafcik, was initially applied to the manufacturing sector. Over time, it has been adopted across sectors. “Organisations are often too quick to cut human resources in an effort to address losses, when instead they should be refining their processes,” says Mtshali.

Lean management can be supported by tedious manual processes or driven by consultants, but to be truly effective, it needs to be run on a shared digital platform to which every stakeholder in the company can contribute, she says.

Corel MindManager is mind mapping software for business that supports effective lean management across any industry sector, Mtshali says.

MindManager enables teams to collaborate to brainstorm and visualise data, build organisational charts, flowcharts, concept maps, timelines and diagrams, prioritise actions and assign resources and costing. As a Microsoft partner, it integrates with Microsoft products and features a Microsoft Teams integration. MindManager enables teams to easily gather knowledge and data, including from external sources, to evolve brainstorm sessions into executable strategies or processes, with clear visibility of project elements and status.

“A local customer in the engineering space has equipped their project management teams with MindManager to improve efficiency and reduce the number of meetings they need; while tertiary institutions are using it to track schedules, processes and outcomes. Customers are benefiting by gaining efficiencies, saving time, improving customer experience and saving a lot of money. In addition, by enabling all team members to contribute to process and product improvement, they are improving team culture in their organisations,” says Mtshali.

The latest version of MindManager, version 22 for Windows and version 14 for Mac is now available. For a free trial, go to try MindManager for free.