Today SME published a success story about one of my clients. Below is a link.
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-newsletter.pl?LEAN&20081107&2&
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Where do I start on my Lean Transformation?
I hear the myths all the time. "I need to have a grass roots Lean Initiative, that way the employees will embrace the change and lead the effort", or "What we need is Senior Management support". Well in both cases the answer is yes, but I think the answer is only yes if a few conditions exist within the organization. First a couple of points I would like to make. Lean is different for every company, it takes a great deal of effort, and you will rarely get it right on the first try. With that being said, I will explain the approach I have seen work best.
Any Lean initiative needs to be driven by the employees, so on one side grass roots can be right. But it needs to involve all employees. Not everyone will be on the same page and their is a significant learning curve involved with Lean implementations. Reading a book isn't going to give you all the information you need to implement, as I said before all companies are different. So in order to get employees to drive the changes and sustain them you need to PREPARE and ALIGN the Organization. That starts with Senior Management Leading the way. Implementing Lean principles requires time and resources. Without that you are only going to see frustration and minor changes to the system. So from my experience a company that wants to start working on a Lean Transformation should:
1-Define what LEAN TRANSFORMATION means, and establish long term goals.
2-Assessment of where you are currently.
3-Create a specific plan for implementation (Avoid "Drive by Kaizen Events")
4-Create a measurement system to monitor change and drive results.
5-Communicate the plan to everyone in the organization, as well as roles & responsibilities.
6-Education on Lean principles.
7-Leadership needs to be involved and empower employees to bring ideas to the table.
8-Audit progress and adjust plan as needed.
Lean Transformation has to ultimately change Human Behavior. Without a Culture that will support Continuous Improvement and Change, Lean can be an impossible journey.
Any Lean initiative needs to be driven by the employees, so on one side grass roots can be right. But it needs to involve all employees. Not everyone will be on the same page and their is a significant learning curve involved with Lean implementations. Reading a book isn't going to give you all the information you need to implement, as I said before all companies are different. So in order to get employees to drive the changes and sustain them you need to PREPARE and ALIGN the Organization. That starts with Senior Management Leading the way. Implementing Lean principles requires time and resources. Without that you are only going to see frustration and minor changes to the system. So from my experience a company that wants to start working on a Lean Transformation should:
1-Define what LEAN TRANSFORMATION means, and establish long term goals.
2-Assessment of where you are currently.
3-Create a specific plan for implementation (Avoid "Drive by Kaizen Events")
4-Create a measurement system to monitor change and drive results.
5-Communicate the plan to everyone in the organization, as well as roles & responsibilities.
6-Education on Lean principles.
7-Leadership needs to be involved and empower employees to bring ideas to the table.
8-Audit progress and adjust plan as needed.
Lean Transformation has to ultimately change Human Behavior. Without a Culture that will support Continuous Improvement and Change, Lean can be an impossible journey.
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