In this economy, businesses are cutting costs left and right. One local business hopes to help them in that endeavor.

The Lean Institute at the University of Oklahoma specializes in aiding businesses to save time and costs by cutting out waste.

"It's a prime time, you know, for people to take advantage of (the institute)," said Terry Smith, program director. "There's never been a better time."

The institute began in 2004, starting with a contract with Tinker Air Force Base. Within the past year, the institute has been expanding to other government entities and private companies.

It plans to expand its customer base even more as companies are looking to save money in this recession.

The Lean Institute is part of the College of Continuing Education at OU and is a self-sustaining business. The institute uses time and energy saving principles called Lean and Six Sigma to improve business actions.

"It's not just us, it's the tools -- they work every time," Smith said.

When a company hires the Lean Institute, the staff of three looks to independent contractors to bring expert advice to each company. The institute has project coaches that they assign to different companies based on their individual expertise.

The contractors then meet with the people actually involved in the process they want to improve. They get the employees involved because when all the different aspects of one process are put together it is often apparent what needs to change.

The Lean Institute doesn't dictate what needs to change, but instead gets input from those affected by the change so that the employees take ownership of it.

"Our job is to really teach them how to do it so we can step aside and they can take over," Smith said.

Despite the effort to involve all parties in the decisions and changes, Assistant Program Director Max Dugan said there are sometimes still people that are resistant to change. They've been doing the same thing the same way for years, and it takes them a while to realize that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best way.

"People get into their routines and it's amazing how inflexible they are about moving it," Dugan said.

Smith stressed that when processes are found to be efficient, it's not normally the workers' faults. Instead, it's the time between each step in the process that makes it inefficient, she said.

"Most people really want to do a good job, they do the best they can with what they have," Smith said.