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From its origins in the Japanese automotive industry several decades ago, Lean has become the proven approach companies have used in industry after industry to transform into ? and maintain position as ? leading, dominant, world-class competitors. Not only do these companies define the high bar of industry performance, but month after month, year after year, they constantly raise that performance bar.
As the proven benefits of Lean have become apparent, and as market pressures drive companies to improve customer response to survive and prosper, Lean has become the chosen avenue to success for tens of thousands of companies. Yet, many companies that begin the Lean transformation process with energy and resolve fail to sustain and complete the transformation to a Lean organization. They begin with a flourish: senior management makes announcements, there is a highprofile "kick-off," perhaps Lean gurus are brought in, employees are trained in Lean approaches and the methodologies of improvement techniques, pilot areas are selected, and so on.
In truth, initial results may be impressive. Perhaps manufacturing lead times and inventories are reduced significantly and on-time performance improves dramatically. Customers are happy. Management is happy. Employees have overcome initial reservations and now feel invigorated and eager to continue. Life seems good, the future wide open.
Then, for no one apparent reason, it starts to fade. The relentless focus on eliminating waste from the system seems more like lip service. The self-sustaining fire has cooled and the on-going improvement effort falters and seems about to stop. There are fitful attempts to continue or to restart the initiative, but these actions have no sustainable effect.
For example, many companies begin their Lean initiatives with the 5S program, yet only a very small percentage ever achieves the fifth S, "Sustain". 5S becomes no more than a glorified housekeeping exercise and the value it can deliver to improved workflow and productivity remain unmined.
Further, less than 20% of companies that begin Lean grade themselves well as Lean enterprises years after they kicked off their Lean transformation. Sadly, in the end, for many companies that begin down the road to Lean, the truth is that the transformation to a Lean enterprise has stalled or, in the worst case, failed altogether (though none in the company will likely admit it). The initial results are indisputable, the words may still be there, but despite everyone's best intentions, there are no actions or results to back up those words. The path to failure is paved with good intentions.
In order for Lean to succeed, to reach that point of self-sustaining criticality, each company must have the proper methods directing, measuring, forcing and reinforcing Lean activities on a daily basis at the most granular level of activities. This paper considers strategies and tactics that are effective in fostering the progression of a company from Lean novice to Lean enterprise at the shop floor level.
ASSUMPTIONS OF THE INITIAL STATE
There are certain principles of Lean that guide the effort. The fundamentals will be the same in every company, although the details of the implementation and the use and timing of so-called Lean tools may vary widely depending on the company strategy and needs.
There are five principles of Lean:
Specify value
Value is always defined from the customer point-of-view. Identify the value stream Once value is specified, then the value stream to deliver it should be detailed or mapped. In the simplest sense, there should be a current state value stream, i.e. today's process, and there should be a future value stream that proposes a significantly improved future state. Note that there are three types of activities associated with the value stream and that the value stream map should at the very least include information management and transformation:
-Problem solving ? for example, the design of product and manufacturing processes
-Information management ? for example, the flow of execution signals from customer through manufacturing and material acquisition
-Transformation ? the manufacturing process or the flow of activities that produce the product or service that the customer values.
Flow
Begin the production transition from batch run and move to flow of work, especially with regard to the recognition that queuing of work is a waste that can be quickly attacked and reduced.
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