WHY LEAN FAILS

Leanovations has successfully worked with many manufacturing companies to implement a Lean transformation, after they have struggled or failed multiple times with their lean journey. Hiring the right coach is an important part of a successful journey.

Companies that fail usually do not understand what Lean really is. Lean focuses on eliminating waste in all the enterprise processes, thereby reducing costs and expanding capacity creating new profitable growth opportunities for the company. It is not about eliminating people, rather it is about involving all employees in improving processes, product quality and customer satisfaction (internally and externally) so you can profitably grow the business.

So why does Lean fail? The current company culture plays the biggest part in the successes or failures with a Lean Transformation. There is no one magic “step by step” cookbook for Lean. Although many consultants may want you to think there is. Each company has a specific culture, organizational structure and performance needs and at Leanovations, we tailor our approach to establish a transformation process that will work for each client, but be aware Leanovations mantra is to apply “Constant Gentle Pressure” for Lean Transformation success.

Leanovations has found 10 major reasons why many companies fail at Lean.

1. There is No Strategic Deployment Plan with Breakthrough objectives for the company to focus on (It is like taking a trip with no map or plan)
2. There is no formal Plan – Do – Check – Act process in place
3. Expectations, Accountability and Results (EAR) are rarely shared/known
4. People are not motivated because they do not understand the urgency for change (no vision of what “great looks like”)
5. Managers do not enforce a structured process to Lean, nor do they see their role as roadblock removers. Managers must start each day of a Lean journey by living “If it is meant to be, it is up to me”
6. Companies truly do not involve and empower their employees
7. A standard process (standard work) for “how to complete a task” is not established, therefore you cannot improve on a process that does not exist
8. There are no “Internal” supplier/customer measurements to see how one department’s actions/performance is affecting another department
9. Visuals are not used. Visuals will expose problems, or opportunities to improve (In the office as well as the factory) Office functions need to use visuals to indicate the health of a process rather than use computer systems.
10. At the first sign of trouble (and there will be some) the tendency is to revert to the old way, and then the blaming process begins. At this point it is most critical for managers to re-read #5 above.

If you are interested in learning more about how Leanovations may help your company with a Lean Transformation please contact us at: info@leanovations.com, or call (860) 479-0293. Please visit our website at http://www.leanovations.com/.