Leanmanagement is defined by Daniel et al (1990) as “the practice of usingscientific methods to solve business problems in order to create value” Lean managementmethod has certainly become the most successful method to business improvementof this era.
It has endured other improvement approaches and been taken up byorganisations in all kinds of businesses across the world. Accordingto Torbjorn et al (2016), every large business has some practice of the lean platformor internal lean development and it has established an army of lean experts. Thelean philosophy and practice has extended across every sector of activity, fromretailing, supplies to distinct and process manufacturing, service and repair,financial services and management, construction, software development and IT,healthcare and service delivery in government. Bankof Botswana is one of those businesses that have also adopted the leanmanagement system through an approach of improving its customer security access control system to the bank. Access control system is the extent aimed to allowauthorized personnel, vehicles and equipment to pass through protectivebarriers such as walls, gates, doors, biometrics, identity cards, access tagsetc. to give authorized access to the area.
It consists of device technologiesas well as operational policies and procedures for utilizing the technologies.According to Messaoud (2006), Security Access Control Measures are mainly anintegral part of the lean system of every business organization and it is sostrategic that Banks understand how these work. The more advanced technology onsecurity measures, the need for security measures increase. With greatersecurity measures, crime such as robberies, espionage, theft etc. can becontrolled and all this is evidence of the linkage between lean management andorganizational management. Access control is motivated by theneed to divulge access to information and valuable resources and services toauthorized entities only. Banks today have many security concerns regarding physicalsecurity and information security. Planning for security is therefore anintegral part of any Bank function.
The most efficient and cost-effectivemethod of instituting security measures into any facility or operation isthrough advance planning and continuous monitoring throughout the project orprogram. According to Robert (2009) Reliabilityon security access systems is defined as the credibility of a computer systemsand physical security such that dependence can justifiably be placed on theservice it delivers. Some of the different reliability attributes include:availability, reliability, safety and security. Some of these attributes areoften considered separately because the techniques used to achieve them areusually perceived as being mutually antagonistic. Firstly, reliability andavailability are generally achieved by incorporating mechanisms for toleratingany faults (especially accidental faults) that occur, or that remain despiteattempts at fault prevention during the system design process. These techniqueswill of necessity involve space and time redundancy; they can easily takeadvantage of a distributed computing architecture by means of replicatedcomputation using sets of untrusted processors or systems. Secondly,security features are normally accomplished by way of fault preventionmechanisms whereby vital applications are applied on physically and logicallyprotection means. Unintended-fault tolerance (by way of replication) increases the number of potential accesspoints to confidential information and accordingly can reduce the effectiveness of the safety techniques.
To be adequately practical, a solution dealing with this antagonism should be taken into account the subsequent two requirements: trusted areareduction, and safe security access systems.Accordingto Yunping et al, (2007) Authentication and access control are often combinedinto a single operation, so that access is approved based on successfulauthentication, or based on an anonymous access token. Authentication methodsand tokens include passwords,biometric scans, physical keys,electronic keys and devices, hidden paths, social barriers, and monitoring byhumans and automated systems.
Benefits Lean management is a technique that goes back to productionwith the main purpose of increasing output by means of decreasing input. Thisphilosophy has its origin in the Japanese manufacturing industry and strongly certainto the Toyota production system. This has additionally proved effective to Bankof Botswana through the advent of the security access control system which hasseen work being accomplished efficiently and effectively. Verona, (2011)The lean management system’s biggest benefit through theAccess control measures is in the system’s usefulness indeterring crime. When potential intruders see the Accesscontrol system, they may go elsewhere because it isn’t worth the time totry to go around it. Some access Control measures like Video surveillance with high-resolution footage and sound recordings enablesthe Bank to capture everything that happens on the property.
Even if the mainpurpose is to catch criminals, they can end up capturing far more thanintended. For example, sound recording, may pick up on foul play among employeesor record instances of harassment. With audio and video evidence, the bank canhave everything needed to shore up legal cases that arise.Bruno, 2010, Leanmanagement aims to satisfy customers in terms of product and service quality andto simultaneously reduce the lead times.
The quality in the service context isa strategic element because it allows gaining competitive advantage, reducingcosts and increase market share and profits. Lean management helps in theimproving of the normal daily operations of a bank typically performed inso-called “back office,” and to some degree the work of tellers and supervisorsin the front offices.Challenges It should be noted that customers are not securityexperts and therefore cannot be expected to give an accurate assessment of theSecurity Access Control Systems. In many cases their information is based onspeculation. There is another aspect to Access Control otherthan physical security Access Control, this is Information security control.
The authorization, authentication,access approval, and audit to make a decision to grant or rejectan access request. Thomas, (2007)Sometimes the bank is concerned that the workers aretaking information from the site. In these situations security may be asked todo searches of employees as they are leaving the site. This may also not gowell with the employees who may feel they are being treated as criminals.It should be noted that customers are not securityexperts and therefore cannot be expected to give an accurate assessment of theSecurity Access Control Systems. In many cases their information is based onspeculation.
Thereare many individuals in today’s society whose goal is to take advantage ofcommercial organisations and the government. Law enforcement and corporatesecurity departments are heavily involved in countering identity theft and fraudulentactivities being committed by criminals. Other than this there are some hardcore criminals who take advantage of lapses in security and break intofacilities to steal money, valuables and information.Thereis mistrust and usefulness recognition (people do not see the usefulness ofsome access control measures), who are generally not educated on the systems.Their concerns include possible invasion of privacy and the association offingerprinting technicians with criminals. The widespread implementation anduse of Access Control has not established a foothold in the Bank.
Any effort intrying to impose it is being viewed as a “Big Brother” initiative.Onthe other hand, everyday life is getting more complicated, especially with theneed to remember an ever-growing number of different user Ids, logons,Passwords, PIN numbers and lock combinations. There are many risks involvedwhen using Passwords or any other ID numbers.AccessControl also introduces not just financial concerns but also psychologicalissues as well. In a day and age where most people feel that they are monitoredfor one reason or another, Access Control is being viewed in this line. HaroldF (2012)Thefundamental fear behind Access Control measures is the fear of the unknown,much of the wariness may be coming from the strangeness of a new technology.Sixty percent of the people asked how they would react to finger scan at theBank say they would find it a problem.Accesscontrol measures, like network security measures and security to buildings andother assets that must be protected from unauthorized personnel andnonemployees, require a substantial investment.
It is therefore imperative thatthey be undertaken with some confidence that the investments are warranted andeffective.Strength In addition, the Financial Intelligence Agency Act,2009, provides a comprehensive legal framework to support AML with theestablishment of a new Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA). The agency, which isin the process of being established, coordinates, including through cooperationwith relevant bodies both within and outside Botswana, activities relating tothe collection and investigation of financial information.
(This was previouslythe task of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Directorate of Corruptionand Economic Crime.) The legislation also prescribes punishments for failure toreport suspicious transactions.As part of the country’s effort to supportanti-money laundering (AML) activities, Botswana is a member of the Eastern andSouthern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), the objective of whichis to develop the regional response for combating money laundering and thefinancing of terrorism.
This is through implementing the recommendations of theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF) established at the G-7 summit in 1989. ESAAMLG, which has a secretariat inDar es Salaam, Tanzania, was founded in 1999 and has fourteen member countriesas well as various accredited observers (both other jurisdictions andorganisations).Legislation in Botswana aimed at combating financialimproprieties includes:As well as the FIA, a National Financial IntelligenceCommittee was established. The Committee assessed the effectiveness of measuresto combat financial crime and make recommendations for legislative and policyreforms with a view protecting the reputation of Botswana.Recorded footage of a theft or vandalism should be enough tovalidate the Bank’s insurance claims. Plus, even if the Bank never uses footagein court, for investigations, or to make insurance claims, the lower insurancepremiums that result from installing security cameras help the investment payfor itself..Weaknesses Awareness (knowledge) about securityfunctionality is considered convenient.
Most people do not actuallyunderstand security very well. Thorough understanding about how securityfunctionality works may thus be crucial before any adoption takes place. Thestudy showed that due to changing technology, attitudes towards increasedsecurity were good in general but attitudes towards biometrics and usage ifidentity cards were poor.According to the Bank of Botswana official website, www.bankofbotswana.bw/, financial crime, such as money laundering, is aserious problem globally and allowing it to carry on unchecked is a major causeof financial instability. It is, therefore, important for all countries to bevigilant and take necessary steps to counter such crime. This is true even forcountries where financial crime is currently not perceived to be a majorproblem, as it can be easy for the perpetrators of such crimes to switch tomore vulnerable jurisdictions.
It is also particularly important in countries,such a Botswana, which host providers of international financial services.Accordingto Harold et al, (2012) Uneasy situations ona global market are concerns about Information securitycontrol that have been raised, these include; Having too few people whounderstand what is this all about. This makes it too expensive and someimplementation projects simply become impossible. We need an army of peopleable to help with the roll-out as well as daily processing issues. Too manynetwork fees on transactions, these transactions should be affordablefor everyone, while boosting market penetration and providing strong security. Leanmanagement’s enhancement of the Relationship between quality and performanceAccordingto Bohdan W et al, (2014) most banking institutions suffer from fairly basicinefficiencies such as problems and frustrations arising from poorproductivityand work quality, inefficient planning, inadequate coordination andcommunication, insufficient preparation of people, processes and tools, unevenworkflow, excessive bureaucracy, reactive rather than proactive management.After the lean management system is developed in a serious way, organisationscan achieve a higher quality of work in a shorter amount of time, with nobodyworking harder and everybody working smarter.
Employees move from fightingcrisis to increasing both customer satisfaction and bank competitiveness. Bankof Botswana is not an exception after introducing the lean management systemthrough the introduction of the customer security access control system to the organization;there has been better quality service and customer satisfaction.BohdanW et al, (2014) goes ahead to say that after the introduction of the leanmanagement system, performance measurement becomes easy since work becomes morepredictable, stable and pleasant. It soon becomes truly shocking to bothmanagement and staff how much work can be accomplished in the same amount of timeand with the same resources which simultaneously improves productivity,quality, cost, work morale and customer satisfaction. This is true and evidentwith the introduction of the lean management system at Bank of Botswana,quality security has been achieved at a low cost and customer satisfaction isgreater compared to the time before the strategy was introduced.Inconclusion, lean management system mainly aims at strengthening theproductivity reserves by reducing or eliminating wastage. This leads to lowercosts, increased customer satisfaction and higher quality. This enables thebank to keep employees on the payroll since quality service leads to greatercustomer satisfaction hence increasing business.
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