In many digital service companies, the economic reality is characterized by one essential circumstance: scarcity. Fixed costs - such as salaries, infrastructure and software licenses - remain constant, while turnover can fluctuate considerably. This puts companies in a difficult position: with uneven capacity utilization, even a temporary period of weakness can significantly jeopardize profitability.

This makes it all the more important for these companies to work as efficiently as possible. The aim is to minimize waste in all business areas, deploy resources in a targeted manner and increase the quality of the services provided. But how can this ideal be put into practice?

Lean management is a method for optimizing processes that was originally developed in Japan during the Second World War. In view of the general shortage of materials at the time, Japanese companies, above all Toyota, were looking for ways to achieve maximum results with minimum use of resources. This principle of minimizing waste (jp. "muda") formed the foundation for the so-called Toyota Production System, which later became known worldwide as lean management.

The core element of lean management is the systematic identification and elimination of waste. Waste is defined in seven classic categories, including overproduction, unnecessary transportation, waiting times, over-processing, excessive stock, movements and defects. The aim is to design processes in such a way that resources are used optimally and customer needs are met in the best possible way.

But how can these proven concepts from industrial production be transferred to a digital service company?

Digital service companies perform highly complex intellectual work. It often involvescustomized, creative and analytical services that have to be provided individually for each customer. This type of work requires a high degree of flexibility and problem-solving skills, but also carries the risk of inefficiencies: processes are often unstructured, dependencies between teams and employees lead to delays, and valuable resources are wasted due to duplication of work or unclear responsibilities. In this environment, it is difficult to identify and exploit optimization potential.

And this is exactly where Leadtime comes in.

Leadtime makes the hidden inefficiencies in digital service businesses visible and provides management with a powerful set of tools to eliminate them sustainably. The system transfers the powerful but often abstract principles of the lean movement to the specific challenges of digital service companies. At its core, it is about uncovering waste in all its forms - be it through unnecessary bureaucracy, inefficient workflows or poor communication - and eliminating it in a targeted manner.

Lean management with Leadtime mobilizes the previously unused productivity reserves that lie dormant in your company. Software service providers can do more work with less effort - and at the same time provide customers with faster service and better results. And that will pay off considerably for your company.

Leadtime helps to boost your margins: by automating recurring processes, standardizing services and making targeted use of data, Leadtime creates a basis for efficient and error-free processes. The savings from these measures are directly reflected in lower costs per order, while productivity and the quality of the services provided increase.

At the same time, Leadtime supports management in making better use of existing resources: capacities can be adapted more flexibly to the current order situation and expensive idle times are minimized. The result: an improved cost structure and the opportunity to expand competitive advantages through attractive prices or premium services - without jeopardizing your own margin.

A production system based on the division of labor and lean principles makes it much easier to expand capacities as required. New employees can be integrated quickly and seamlessly into all areas of the value chain. At the same time, the system uses key figures to ensure that the new colleagues actually contribute enough to value creation to offset the increased costs.

"Lean" focuses on the customer and their needs. Leadtime takes up this idea by integrating the customer into the value chain almost like an external employee. Customers are given access to the service provider's digital tools and are given the right to have a say in the ongoing task priotization. This creates a close, trusting working relationship. Problems can be solved quickly and cooperatively, which significantly reduces the risk of churn. At the same time, a highly valuable exchange of information is established for product development.

Leadtime installs a working system in which it is no longer necessary for the owners to personally help out in day-to-day business: The system keeps the business running. The overall performance is continuously recorded by means of incidentally collected key figures and brought to the highest level in accordance with the lean principle of continuous improvement. This allows the entrepreneur to concentrate on more strategically important issues.

Digital service providers often treat each of their orders as an individual custom-made product. The reason for this is that individual projects often differ greatly in terms of content: Some are extensive and difficult, others are simpler. Some clients want everything to be done quickly, others need a lot of time. And the employees working on the projects are not always the same either. Everything is a little different every time - and that makes it difficult to recognize a consistent system or even a "value chain" in your own work. And aren't projects already "unique, innovative projects" according to the well-known ISO 9000 definition?Lean provides the opposite concept. The aim here is to develop universally valid processes, even if there may be differences in detail between projects. The aim is to standardize everything that can be standardized in some way and to break it down into a workflow with clearly defined work steps.

We have seen: Lean thinking is the antidote to "muda" (waste). In a digital service company, this primarily refers to a waste of working time: whether it is the provision of consulting services, programming work or support - service providers sell time. "Avoiding waste" therefore means getting the company used to using the time available as prudently and economically as possible. In concrete terms, this means that the company should direct as much of its capacity as possible to activities that directly add value - activities that can be billed to a customer. The term "lead time", which is also borrowed from lean management, should also be understood in this context. In industrial production, "lead time" refers to the period between the receipt of an order and the delivery of the goods to the customer. This period includes all steps and activities that are necessary to fulfill customer requirements - including planning, production, delivery and, if applicable, waiting times or delays.

Transferred to a digital service company, the "lead time" includes the entire period in which a customer's order is processed in the company - i.e. the inquiry, recording the requirements, implementation, testing and billing of the service.

Working "lean" therefore means optimizing lead times. We have to ensure that every task and project we receive istransported through the company as quickly and efficiently as possible. Because the faster an issue can be dealt with, the sooner the capacity used will be available for other things. If a company improves its lead time, it gets more work done in the same amount of time. It can therefore generate more sales with the existing staff. And because optimizing lead time is the real driving force behind our strategy, we have named our ERP system and our framework as a whole after it.