In many companies engaged in continuous improvement efforts, the focus is on the shop floor to reduce lead-time and cost while improving quality and on-time delivery. However, it's important to realize that improvement tools (such as value stream mapping, set-up reduction, poka-yoke error proofing, team-based kaizen events and the rest) are equally effective when applied to the other functions in an enterprise.
Source: Industry Week, http://industryweek.com