| I have been involved in Lean Manufacturing in one | | | | But most of these consultancies are falling into the |
| form or another since the 80s working for various | | | | same trap I did when I first started out, thinking that |
| first tier suppliers to the automotive industry before | | | | lean is about an inward focus on waste reduction. It |
| branching out to other industries as a consultant. | | | | is not! The first point of lean is "what is value in the |
| People's perception of what lean is has changed quite | | | | eyes of the customer?" You have to identify what is |
| a lot over the years, and the reputation of lean has | | | | valuable to the customer, what features and services |
| been damaged many times over by failed or poor | | | | do they really want, when do they want them, what |
| implementations. | | | | price will they pay? |
| My own perception of lean has changed also, as a | | | | The attack on waste (wrongly) assumes that you |
| young engineer I have gone for the glory of quick | | | | are tackling the issues that prevent you from |
| wins in my areas of responsibility to show how clever | | | | delivering value to the customer, some of what you |
| I was. As I have grown into the role I have realized | | | | will do will be right but often you remove flexibility |
| that these implementations and changes tended to | | | | and speed from the system by focusing only on |
| revert, that the savings that were expected were | | | | cutting out costs. What then happens when the |
| not realized long term and I had to think why. | | | | customer demand increases, or something fails within |
| I looked around at the many consultancies that are | | | | your company or your supplier, you end up putting |
| offering to implement lean manufacturing and have to | | | | back labor and reverting to old processes to tackle |
| pass comment on what they consider lean to be. If | | | | the issues. |
| you read their definitions and their sales pitch as to | | | | Most lean implementations fail to define value, they |
| what they can offer you will see that nearly all focus | | | | fail to identify the full value stream and work out |
| very heavily on elimination or reduction of waste. | | | | how to make that value flow at the pull of the |
| They can reduce your organizations costs significantly | | | | customer. They also generally fail to involve |
| by identifying and removing your waste adding many | | | | everyone and make it part of the companies culture |
| percentage points to your profit. They illustrate these | | | | to continually work on striving for perfection. |
| improvements with up to date case studies and | | | | If you implement lean by defining customer value and |
| happy business owners posing in front of their new | | | | making it flow at the pull of the customer, you will |
| BMWs that they brought with the increased profits. | | | | automatically tackle the wastes within your system |
| Who would not want to hire them, it sounds like free | | | | and you will be left with a customer focused, |
| money for all! | | | | sustainable, self improving business that will flourish |
| But you also read about the many failures and the | | | | rather than one that will struggle to compete! |
| implementations where things revert back to the old | | | | In conclusion lean is not just about waste, sure it is a |
| ways within a few months, or even worse. These | | | | major element, but it is not the most important. The |
| "failures" give lean a bad name and relegate Lean | | | | reduction and elimination of waste comes about from |
| back into the "Fad of the year" category along with | | | | a focus on value and flow. Without working on the |
| all of the other business improvement ideas that the | | | | true philosophy your successes will be short lived. |
| management try to implement. | | | | |