We all want to improve and solve problems before seemed impossible but we take the path of least resistance. Therefore we hesitate to stumble into something unknown, not knowing if we will achieve our goals.
Have you defined your goals properly?
Before we discuss why you should work with lean, let’s start discussing the foundation and success criterias for lean, or any organization for that matter.
What is an organization? A structured collection of people working together against a common goal. Typically binded by a empolyer/employee contract. But it’s all about the human resources. They are there for a reason. We have evolved far beyond the first rounds of the industrial revolutions. Even though many employees still perform repeatable work, they are capable of so much more if you trust them. This doesn’t mean that employees shall get new jobs or duties, but shall be listened to given the opportunity to voice their opinion. An organization culture that is based on trust and respect is key moving forward. Most organizations have spent a lot of time optimizing and perfecting what they do, but often forget to innovate along the way. While keeping focus on your core business, breaking out of the cycle to change and innovate may become more difficult. The innovation culture is abcent, change becomes complex and results in discouraged employees.
An innovative culture
Successfull companies today are innovative and prepared for constant change. This also relates to companies using lean. Historically revolutions has been massive and disruptive, but well defined. The risk of failure has been enormous. Today, revolution is a continous process of change and innovation. Companies embracing this fact will succeed in the modern industry.Only the organization culture can make this happen. It must be founded by top level management in their strategies and implemented by the employees. Subsequently, training is necessary. New competence is required to handle constant change, new processed, new methods, new technology, new business models etc. Luckily, there are tools and defined methods to help any organization get there.
What is LEAN?
Lean is a collection of tools and methods used to build an improvement culture in organizations. With Hoshin Kanri, you can define and secure goal achievements with horizontal and vertical alignment. Use Gemba walk to learn about the actual events in your organization. Kaizen helps you focus on and perform continuous improvement.
Use Value Stream Mapping to learn and identify improvement potential in your business processes.
PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act and is a method for constantly measure your improvement, set a higher standard and move forward – Continuous Improvement.
Team meetings, daily hustle, morning meeting, standup meetings are key elements of practicing lean. These are typically short, limited to the daily activities and based on open dislogue between the team members. – How did it go yesterday? – Plan for today? – Any blockages or issues that requires assistance?
Advantages
When implementing and practicitng lean, your organization become more agile and suited to adapt to changes in your surroundings. With less stress and effort, your organization can adapt to new demands and challenges in the market.
At the same time, lean lets your improve performance, help you define ways to solve problems and measure results. Incremental improvement reduces the risk and innovation becomes a natural part of the companys mindset.
Key sucess factors
Management commitment
Employee engagement
Competence
Measure performance
Celebrate success
Typical pitfalls
Believing lean will fix everything by itself
Passive leadership
Lack of available tools
Conflicting metrics
Conflict of interest – bad culture
Talk to us today. Let's discuss your situation and see how DigiLEAN can help your business.
