Does Lean Change the Organizational Chart?

[qualitygoddess]

I was asked this question today, so I thought I would pose it to this group: does the implementation of Lean Enterprise in an organization cause it to change its organizational chart? In other words, this person wanted to know, does the chart become 'flatter'?

Appreciate all replies. If anyone has an example of a 'lean' org chart, I would appreciate it if you could share it!

--QG

[Jim Wynne]

Originally Posted by qualitygoddess

I was asked this question today, so I thought I would pose it to this group: does the implementation of Lean Enterprise in an organization cause it to change its organizational chart? In other words, this person wanted to know, does the chart become 'flatter'?

Appreciate all replies. If anyone has an example of a 'lean' org chart, I would appreciate it if you could share it!

--QG

Whether or not the hierarchy or structure of an organization changes as a result of waste-elimination efforts depends on the intended scope of the initiative and whether or not the waste identified includes unnecessary people or job functions. "Flatness" is overrated, imo; I think it's a natural result of common sense business practices, and not something one does to avoid a command-and-control hierarchy.

[ralphsulser]

A couple Lean projects here have resulted in increased output for certain products which improved reduction of time to process more parts through the system. It did not affect manning or reporting structures.

[wmarhel]

Originally Posted by qualitygoddess

I was asked this question today, so I thought I would pose it to this group: does the implementation of Lean Enterprise in an organization cause it to change its organizational chart? In other words, this person wanted to know, does the chart become 'flatter'?

Appreciate all replies. If anyone has an example of a 'lean' org chart, I would appreciate it if you could share it!

--QG

Short term, probably not. Long term changes are likely as many of the redundant work activities are brought to the surface and the positions of people performing those activities may disappear.

While Lean isn't an exercise in downsizing, companies are typically staffed incorrectly. Attrition is just one method to keep the headcount down, some people may not like this new "initiative" and decide upon a career change, others may openly disregard the move towards being Lean and the company may be required to "help" them in a new career choice.

As the progression towards Lean occurs some flattening is likely to occur. But, what is even more important is that the typical pyramid structure of the company (with the CEO at the top, the grunts at the bottom, and everyone else somewhere in between) should become inverted. What this means is that people begin to realize that if they aren't actually producing the product to sell to the customer, then their purpose in life is to support those that do.

Wayne