Has Lean Manufacturing put on weight due to Middle Age ?????? :confused:

Having spent many years within both Automotive and FMCG companies exhorting the virtues of “Lean” is “Best” it always amazes me that when you speak to CEO’s etc the first thing they envisage is labour reductions, this in their opinion is the best way to achieve lean.

Even when you explain that as a percentage the direct Labour cost might only be 10 –15% of the overall manufacturing cost !! – There are much bigger fish to fry.

The integration of Lean manufacturing into most organisations start with either the CEO or Finance director (VP or Vice VP or Assistant to the Vice VP – for our American cousins) spending a number of very informative days at a local 5* Hotel (with Golf Course) and returning with this new Vision, they then get together the operational team and instruct them to get on with it. A bit cynical I know but you all must see the odd thread in my ranting’s.

Well lets get to the crux of the matter, I have an opinion, this is that unless the Senior Management Team within an organisation can make the shift to Reflective Management prior to the introduction of Lean they are doomed with failure in the long term.

What do I mean by Reflective Management, this is the ability to look inward as well as outward to bring an holistic approach to Management and Manufacturing, not the “We Love you all and want to be your friends” approach but a more inclusive style that truly takes on some of the ethos of Kaizen, Gemba and Hoshin Kanri not that as a European I am fully indoctrinated by the Japanese manufacturing principle, but I envy their simplicity and openness.

I would welcome to hear from anyone – or company that has approached Lean in this Reflective manner as I am currently researching this topic for my Msc.

QM

I agree that upper management has to realize that if organizational change is to happen, they, the managers have to change their style and their way of thinking. This is true for several reasons, but the most important is that in order for any change to take hold, the rest of the people in the organization have to change as well. If they see a change in approach and attitude at the top, it is much more likely that the rest of the organization will "buy in".

Craig

My experience with Lean Mfg concepts was very dissappointing. Lean Mfg alone looks for redundancies in the system to reduce duplication of efforts and proved a waste of time at my previous employer. A smart General Manager with an eye on waste and inefficiency, leaves nothing for Lean to do. We had too "invent" something to show that the CEO's idea and the cost of the program was worthwhile. Yup, orders were given to find something, anything to see that this happens. What a joke!

As for the "Reflective Management added as a side dish with Lean, IMHO, they don't mix! One involves processes and the other, well, is something else.

Our Program was looked at by the participants as just a PR ploy and try as we might, collectively, there was no justification to spend the amount of time that we put on it. images/smilies/bonk.gif images/smilies/smokin.gif

A smart General Manager with an eye on waste and inefficiency, leaves nothing for Lean to do.

I have to differ with you here. Lean is really focused on improved throughput, even if processes are duplicated. JIT, Kanban, etc. are all parts of Lean. You need a buy in on the floor because the operators will be more help with the effort than a smart, eagle-eyed GM any day. The GM should be driving the effort but the emphasis on "parts out the door" fogs the eyes.

QMJones, you may want to look at the threads under ISO-9000 and System Thinking for more discussion.

I have to differ with you here. Lean is really focused on improved throughput, even if processes are duplicated. JIT, Kanban, etc. are all parts of Lean. You need a buy in on the floor because the operators will be more help with the effort than a smart, eagle-eyed GM any day. The GM should be driving the effort but the emphasis on "parts out the door" fogs the eyes.

QMJones, you may want to look at the threads under ISO-9000 and System Thinking for more discussion.

The Lean Team was comprised of all Department Heads with the resultant charts floated out to the worker bees for approval and comment. This GM has complete loyalty from all the employees because of his no nonsense approach to Manufacturing and all Operations. Buy in was never the problem. Seeing the Emperor's New Clothes was. It can be a simple or as difficult as you want to make it. :p :ko:

You know better than I what the true problems were, I wasn't there. It has been my experience that a Lean Team made up of Department Mgrs. are #1 not very lean, look at the money being spent on the team, and #2 not real productive.
I'm not saying this happened at your shop, but things being rolled out by D.H's can be viewed as "no questions or comments wanted - just do it".

You know better than I what the true problems were, I wasn't there. It has been my experience that a Lean Team made up of Department Mgrs. are #1 not very lean, look at the money being spent on the team, and #2 not real productive.
I'm not saying this happened at your shop, but things being rolled out by D.H's can be viewed as "no questions or comments wanted - just do it".

You're right. But, I never saw such a well oiled machine as this Manager and his reportees. He has a flat line reporting system and all suggestions to improve processes/products were scrutinized and as efficient and streamlined as possible. For example, Project Engineers routinely sit with all hands in involved in the upcoming project. Alternate methods for achieving Customer requirements were often implemented due to the "workerbees" intimate knowledge of the processes. Quicker, cost effective and "meets or exceeds Customer Reqt's". That's just the way it is. :agree: :smokin:

Interesting comments. You may very well be right. We enjoy strong senior management support for Lean (and we've expanded it beyond manufacturing / production to adminsitrative, office, finance, engineering, design, etc.) at my organization (major US Air Force installation, 25,000 plus employees, mostly civilian), but in another life I run a small but growing professional association of people involved with Lean. Most of our members are front-line employees. Rarely do we get a senior manager as a member. Even less rarely does he or she contribute in the discussions.

I look forward to participating in these discussions and learning all I can about the implementation of Lean.

Regards,

Gary

No more input? Hmmmm.

Be careful of the "lean to the point of anorexia" phenomenon. In the search for the ultimate throughput, and as someone put it "fog in the eye" to get the parts out, my company has produced a metabolism that generates new failure modes.

Be careful of the "lean to the point of anorexia" phenomenon. In the search for the ultimate throughput, and as someone put it "fog in the eye" to get the parts out, my company has produced a metabolism that generates new failure modes.

Welcome to the Cove! :bigwave:

I'm not sure I understand your entire post, but I agree that you have to be careful. The law of diminishing returns will come into play somewhere along the line. First, you grab the "low hanging fruit". Then you migrate to more difficult tasks, and perhaps even capital projects, but eventually, the cost for the increase will be higher than the reward reaped.

Hi I am new to the cove and in Mexico, so if I sound strange please forgive me.

I have read the thread and found one repeting idea and one repeating problem.

1 Idea, Lean is about reducing, people, inspections, inventories....

1 Problem, Management does not understand what it takes to "go lean"

I would like to think that if you want to use a diferent "tool" for the same problem, you are not going to get very far...that is, if your problem is "product quality" reducing inspections will not get you far...but it does not mean that "reducing inspections is not lean"

As a matter of fact, I understand lean as a diferent facet of Quality, that is, once you are good at your processes, you can start "reducing the CYCLE TIME" wich I think is the central concept of Lean, not just reducing inventories, since a reduced cycle time will increase throughput...and this is useful ONLY if the market is not a problem...?

I hope this makes sense :confused:

As a new User, I hope that there is still interest in this item.... If not, ok too, lean lives on.....

Refelective Management - hummmmmm.

Perhaps this new project I am working on can shed some light on methodology of lean with respect to a holistic view.

Background: Project began 3 weeks ago. I spend 2 wks in Sweden teaching lean, then 1 at home, then repeat this process over 4 months.
Environment: Union Environment - Has recent knowledge of past failures - Some as recent as two months ago in their other European Branch - Kind of did that, failed, why do again attitude.
Have support from Division level, but everyone in a fog on how to roll out successfully, and everyone in doubt as to its value.

(Don't you just love walking into a "tried that, didn't work attitude"?)

So, how to begin.

I started by putting together a "reason for change" presentation that takes about 3 hours to present. (PPT 108 pgs). I then spent the rest of the 1st week examining both the visible and invisible barriers.
The rollout began with training by myselft to a core team which consisted of a leading member of the union, one of the manufacturing managers, the Managing director of the plant, as well as key management leaders. The presentation was given in English with full disclosure hand outs in Swedish, as well as an overhead Power Point presentation (PPT) that was prepared also in Swedish. ( of course, English speaking core group ).

I set up a special program with the union representative to train weeks in advance of the VSM program, 5 S program, as well as the Standard Work/Kaizen program. (TPM to be done later as this environment has mostly very low tech machinery).

So, how did the first week go? The union steward is already spreading the word in support, the managing Director is giving the presentation with the help of one of the Manufacturing managers as well as the union steward to the entire shop floor, and three suppliers have already been brought on boad with 3 more being scheduled.

" What do I mean by Reflective Management, this is the ability to look inward as well as outward to bring an holistic approach to Management and Manufacturing, "

If our definition of Refelective management is bringing a holistic approach to management and manufacturing, then perhaps this approach is acceptable.

(If anyone is interested.... this project is just getting off the ground... I can try to keep you up-dated to how this project turns out).

Yes! Do keep us up to date. Often, the best updating also clues us in on when you hit snags and how you overcome them. I never did believe H. Ross Perot when he said, "It's just this easy!"

A thought on "Reflective management".

At the time, I never gave the deep thought that this thread probably deserved, however, as I 'reflect' back. I find that my most quiet time is when I am in the Hot tub with a good Whiskey or Scotch and a fine $0.89 cigar.

Of course work is not the only thing I think about. I assume like most people, I think about God, family, friends, and finances. However, when I do think about work, I think about wheather what I did today, made a difference. Am I trying to build something, or am I just going with the flow.

In the case of "Reflective management" it appears to me that much time is spent on how we handled this fire or that fire, rather than, what did we do to make things better with respect to a target, or goal.

Of course, as we get older and I hope more experience with each passing day, it seems to me that there is a natural growth in the management staff, and as a result, a change of direction, maby more often than we like.

Personally, I prefer a more structured plan . . . which of course means a structured reflection.

If we as a company or corporation, establish a system (lets say and "A" plan), and spread this through the company in terms of measurables ( productivity, scrap reduction, quality reductions etc..) and review these measureables against the plan. I would think that this sets up a natural order to take place. Are we meeting our plan? If we are, is this the direction we still want to go? Is there something missing that will help us understand the customer, market trend, short and long term R.O.I.?

As such, are we not reflecting on our business? Or are again in a cycle of repetition? Productivity up 6% per year, Quality defects down 50% per year, etc.?

Is reflection then, just a moment of time where we just think about what is passed? Or is reflection a moment where we should step back and see if we are doing something better every day?