Lean official statistics concept based on the working conditions survey

Abstract

The Lean approach refers to the elimination of waste from the value stream. In other words, it excludes any activities which fail to be of any value to the client, thus enabling an organisation to adapt to the growing customer demands while providing high quality products and keeping unit costs under control. The aim of this paper is to assess the possibility of applying the Lean concept in official statistics on the basis of the working conditions survey, which is characterised by an increasing number of the surveyed units and a growing scope of the collected data. The implementation of the Lean concept within the working conditions survey began in 2017 as a pilot project with the aim to reduce the labour intensity that the survey involves. The research methods used in the paper were case study and the Design Science Research. The case study covered the period from 1987 to 2019 and related to the operational areas of the survey, such as its completeness, the number of reporting units and the scope of the collected variables. In order to present the topic in a broader context, additional data were also used, namely the wages and salaries of selected groups of professions, such as IT specialists. The obtained results confirm that the Lean approach is an effective tool applicable in the process of limiting respondent burden. It facilitates the modernisation of the working conditions survey through the elimination of any unnecessary work while maintaining the usefulness of the final results. It may therefore form the foundation for the construction of lean official statistics.