Lean information management: Understanding and eliminating waste

This paper deals with the development of a new approach for supporting the improvement of information management and the overall information systems infrastructure. In particular, the paper discusses the application of lean thinking to information management; where information management can be considered to involve adding value to information by virtue of how it is organised, visualised and represented; and enabling information (value) to flow to the end-user (customer) through the processes of exchange, sharing and collaboration. The potential benefits of lean thinking are discussed and the fundamental barriers for its application to information management are highlighted. These include the need to characterise the nature of waste and establish the five principles of; value, value streams, flow, pull and continuous improvement in the context of information management. It follows that the core contribution of this paper is the development of an understanding of these critical elements and the creation of a conceptual framework for a set of lean principles within the context of information management. This framework offers a unique and arguably generic approach for supporting the retrospective improvement of information management systems and the overall information systems infrastructure. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.