LEAN is not a project

When a company tells me they have gone LEAN, it actually means they have most likely simply given up or stalled. I snicker at programs offering some sort of martial belt of accomplishment or an outright offering of LEAN Certification.

Adopting LEAN is simply adopting a philosophy and embedded within the philosophy is a myriad or perhaps a plethora of tools and methodologies.

When you have the chance to observe by standing inside a Mature LEAN organization you will witness a calm environment with minimal employee movement almost an eerie silence, But boy are they productive.

You can measure the Maturity of LEAN within an organization perhaps by the number of tools and methodologies employed, but the bigger measure and much harder to measure is the IQ (Intellect Quotient) of the work-force.

For example, Imagine a scenario in which a machine breaks down. Prior to LEAN, that machine operator may have gone to his boss, who goes to maintenance, which puts in a work order and ultimately may or may not be able to fix the problem. If not, the problem could escalate to the plant manager and higher before being resolved.

We are now clocking hours, if not days to solve that problem.

In a mature LEAN environment, The LEAN IQ, supports addressing problems closest to where the problem exists. For this example, a well-trained machine operator (who already was doing their own preventive maintenance) may be able to solve the issue on the spot. Or if not, that operator huddles with maintenance, perhaps a tool maker and others closest to the process, and they solve the problem together.

Through Emotional Attachment the ownership is so high, they feel as a team that this is their business. This part of the operation is their baby, their business, and they take a lot of pride in making sure that it's done in a safe way, good quality, good output, good throughput and good uptime of that equipment.

In a true LEAN organization there never seems to be a solid destination since it seems like the horizon is constantly shifting ... these organizations crave for problems to surface so they can be quickly converted into opportunities.

On the topic of problems, a misconception exists that mature lean organizations face fewer problems. That’s not true, it’s their reaction to those problems that changes.

[Mature lean] does yield to better visibility to problems. It does yield to faster responses to problems. It does yield to maybe a deeper understanding of the problems. … Experts who really do this actually worry when they can't find problems.”

But, problem solving changes dramatically. … As that's being done closer and closer to the process, that actually frees up all of the other people in that chain … that no longer have to put out fires. Most important is that everyone has been trained in formal Problem Solving.

To be successful you need to merge Employee Emotional Attachment linked to the Methodologies in order to maximize and leverage the benefits. as the Emotional Attachment grows along with the understanding of LEAN methodologies then your Organization IQ (Intellectual Quotient) begins to grow and now you truly have something very powerful, unbeatable by a peer competitor.

As this begins to happen, some will question if certain methodologies are still applicable, like Morning Market. Perhaps, since problems are more rapidly solved at the source but you still have problems and the methodology will allow you to keep score.

But another magic starts to surface within the Organization. Leaders are less heroic in a mature LEAN organization because they no longer must solve all the problems. In the early stages of lean, leaders likely are solving the problems, escalating the issues and driving the action.

Leaders now act more as coaches and mentors. Freed from a focus on day-to-day problems, their activity becomes more forward-thinking versus reactive.

In an Organization focused on Continuous Improvement you will sense an air of “productive discomfort” to the status quo. It's not fear, but a tension to keep pushing forward.

Perhaps comprehension of LEAN Methodologies can be certified, but how they get applied and then leverage to become optomized requires strong Emotional Attachment to process by your entire Team.

No worries, the horizon will shift