Lean waste elimination fails to hit the bottom line numbers

Many companies, embracing the concepts of lean thinking, hear the urging to 'Just do it', in the spirit of the leaders and pioneers of the Toyota Production System. They then excitedly delve into the transformation process. They stage a kickoff meeting to share their passion, pick something important and start removing waste quickly to capitalize on that “low hanging fruit”.

The target area becomes a beehive of activity, kaizen events, continuous improvement blitzes, 5S initiatives and production tracking boards. People get engaged in the process improvements and the staff gains some hope that finally the company is listening to what they are saying.

Yet flow through the facility does not consistently improve, the mounds of in process inventory do not reduce, and expediting hot orders remains the norm. No cost savings reach the bottom line, there is no demonstrable service and quality improvement for the customer. The improvements are not sustainable. Processes drift back to the old ways of doing things.

So management reaches the conclusion that lean does not work in this environment. We are “different” and the principals must not apply in this industry. We cannot demonstrate a return on our investment.

This lean offensive with its disappointing result drifts off as another abandoned program.

So why does this happen? Why do the concepts of lean, that seem to be such common sense, not work when we apply them? How can so much information be readily available about this approach to process improvement, yet it is so incredibly difficult to implement with concrete demonstrable results?

Click here to read the rest of this article and explore the answer to this all too common dilemma

Norm
www.normanbain.com

Creating a Sense of Urgency Among Employees

John Ryan of the Center for Creative Leadership posted an article this week on Creating a Sense of Urgency Among Employees.

In it he talks about:

• Don't take your foot off the gas.
• Don't hesitate to share bad news.
• Convey optimism and passion.
• Publicly praise urgent actions.
• Partner with colleagues on strategy.

Great thoughts from a great organization. Read the post here.

I had the pleasure of attending the Center for Creative Leadership LDP program early in my career. It was a great experience - good people, great advice!

Norm
www.normanbain.com

Typical approach to solving problems - Fly Swatting

Lean teaches us to look at problems as treasures. An organization that has no problems cannot improve. In order to learn and grow, we need to take risks, make mistakes, discover problems and solve them. The first step to continuous improvement is finding problems.

So, by changing the environment so that discovering problems is encouraged, we create a no blame and learning organzation. An organization where the people are engaged in improving their processes, eliminating waste and adding value for their customer. An environment where people want to work and contribute to the organizatons success. Companies who embrace this philosophy become the employer of choice and typically see a noticable reduction in turnover.

An end result of a systematic approach to problem solving is continuous improvement, lower cost, quicker response and higher profitability. All the things that businesses strive for!

And now I have another problem. All these people finding problems and working to solve them is akin to swatting flies. Everyone is swatting away, but we are not looking for why the flies are gathering in the first place. We need to ensure we get to the root cause of the problem and solve that, rather than the symptoms (swatting flies).

This requires a formal approach to problem solving (so that we get to the root cause) and a systematic approach to improving our system (the value stream) so that we get results sooner and focus our resources on what is important for system throughput. The more responsive our system is to customer demand, the better we can act and improve profitability.

So a great start to a lean journey is to insist that your leaders find and solve problems, and are looking at the business processes as a value stream. A great measure of success would be system throughput and lead time!

Looking to improve your operation? Start by asking your people what value they add for your customer and what problems they are solving!


Norm
www.normanbain.com