About Lean History Today
What does the term 'Lean', “Six Sigma” or even Continuous mean these days. The first 2 have become the most popular terminology for change in the New Millennium in today's corporate culture.
The creation of JIT Manufacturing is generally credited to Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota production executive, in an effort to reduce waste and improve quality. Shingo provided the knowledge from his work at Mitsubishi turn-around after World War II. The foundation for these improvement tools came from the US war-acts that was the catalyst for rebuilding the USA fleets, tanks and equipment after World War I and the act on Pearle Harbor act. The foundation for Toyota's success all started in the USA.
And today, Lean Management techniques and principles are quite widely used throughout the industry. You may have heard Japanese terms like Gemba, Kaizen’s, Kanban and Muda. This isn't a secret key to unlock the mysteries of Lean, they simply mean Learning to See, Continuous Improvement, Pull systems and Non value-added work. Japanese words have signaler meaning versus English words that can mean many different things to convey the ideas of Lean thinking.
But we are often asked how a process improvement technique established specifically for manufacturing can be adapted for white collar work like none manufacturing businesses such as work flows in sales, marketing, legal, financial/accounting, medical, hospitals, doctors/nurses, churches and you name can name any business or process. Every Process has a Flow and it can be seen by going to Gemba (actual observation of the process in question), creating a visual map of the process to identify where the waste is in the flow.
High Level Value Map to identify Constraints to the business.
Lean Your Way's view is that successful lean transformations require a comprehensive implementation approach in weeks not years. While they will certainly include items such as going to Gemba (viewing your process) first to build a current state value stream maps, building continuous improvement plans, and a relentless pursuit of waste elimination, they will also involve efforts such as developing a company-wide understanding of what waste is and how to see it through training, creating a process to sustain Lean improvements, and assisting all levels of management navigate the unexpected challenges associated with an empowered workforce through change management up front. A key component of any Lean Ballistics implementation plan is that it includes tangible financial savings tied to all employees performance plans and reviews. While lean transformation requires much more than a focus on financial performance, it is our view that focusing on the numbers will create a healthy sense of urgency across the organization, as well as energize all levels once super kaizen efforts begin showing results. In our view this should take a few short weeks, and not months or more.
Getting organizations moving forward without resisntance is balancing act between meeting the requirements of the business and engaging employees so they understand they are part of the team for success.