I am acutely aware of a current trend of companies using Lean a la carte ( picking and choosing parts of the methodology without adopting and supporting the corresponding cultural change). This picky approach could relegate Lean to the scrap heap of Canada's marginally successful "flavours of the day" in the business of business improvement. If Lean were not a proven way to become world beaters I would not be concerned, go ahead, let it die. But it is proven, and has no apparent successor, so I am concerned that Canada's chance to close a shameful gap in productivity with the rest of the world will be forever lost if we don't take the challenge of Lean seriously.
There are books written on culture change in the workplace so I will not go into details, but support means: proper training, resources (mentoring and leadership), time to do the Lean work, no fear of improving themselves out of a job, empowerment, demonstrated management integrity and commitment to the change. Some organizations embark on the Lean journey by trying to adapt it to their existing culture. That job could be downright easy if the existing culture is already one of empowerment and accountability, driven from top to bottom by delivering value to the customer. But that is almost never the case (Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result). Not surprisingly, the type of organization that has a better record succcess making the transformation quickly is one that has a lot of "urgency" in play. Urgency almost always means that the company has been put in a bad position and change must happen or the company and the employees will suffer. Strong motivation. If there is no urgency, the rocking of the boat necessary for culture change to take root will be much less tolerated. Without strong leadership, lack of tolerance from the existing culture can limit or snuff out real gains from lean methods. In all cases, urgent or not, strong vision and leadership must be exercised to achieve transformation.
Many organizations are talking the language of Lean these days. Employers now call for the excercise of Lean skills in manufacturing, operations and other sectors . Health care, government, supply chain, logistics/distribution, manufacturing, and services are twigging to it, and they are all fertile ground for lean transformation. So attempts are being made. That is good. But I have seen and heard of numerous organizations that pay lip service to lean without demonstrating the commitment and leadership required to make transformational change. It is one thing to tell your engineer or operations leaders to "use Lean" and quite another to operate a lean enterprise. Of course results have been achieved without becoming a dyed-in-the-wool Lean culture, but for most lean implementations, the seeds of failure are sown at the outset by tepid management commitment. People learn their boss's attention span for applying new methods and (led by resisters) they usually try and wait out any new program and plan to revert to old habits. The Lean transformation is not easy but it is effective, satisfying, and it's the de facto price of admission to the "World Class" club.
Canadian business can use Lean to close the productivity gap that speaks so poorly of our economy's long term prospects. Shedding jobs to the far reaches of the earth every time there is cost pressure, and banking on our base resources to prop us up is not a great strategy to keep Canada competitive. Our corporate taxes are now the some of the lowest in the world. That work is well done. Increasing labour productivity is the next frontier for our country to ensure continued growth. We have the tools.
Greg's Recommended Reading - Bookstore
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