Competing September 2005 Edition

Resilience vs. Brilliance

Okay, so by now maybe you have been implementing your lean program for a few months or years. What have you noticed about the process? Here is what I have experienced with many companies implementing lean.

1. In the beginning, most companies have a large percentage of employees questioning the intent of their lean program.

At this stage it is extremely important to effectively communicate THE SAME simple message (your objective) to all employees.

2. Typically, the next step is a Value Stream Mapping event. The VSM team is very motivated, while those outside the team may feel, disconnected, unimportant or (worst case) about to be eliminated.

Communicate to all employees during the process, formally or informally. Again, a simple clear message is needed.

3. Implementation is forever. If you are not implementing something, even a small improvement, why not? It is important not to overwhelm your resources and by going a “mile wide and an inch deep”. Forward motion, however, must be constant and become an integral part of your culture. You win, win, lose, win, lose, lose, win, win, win, win, lose, win, win, lose, win, win, lose, win………………….I put more losses in the array than we normally face, but it does require an answer to “what do we do when we lose?”

I suggest you admit it to your team, then carefully identify why it happened (root cause) and develop countermeasures (corrective actions) to detect then eliminate the problem. This may take several attempts. This is why I will take RESILIENCE OVER BRILLIANCE. Brilliance usually expects quick wins, we need to be able to consistently deal with quick wins, slow wins, quick losses and slow losses (the worst)…………..by the way, most slow losses take so long because we did not effectively measure the outcomes or we didn’t keep our eye on the objective.

Communicate the status of the program. Regularly updated Kaizen/5S (or 6S) communication boards constantly deliver your clear and simple message…

We are a Lean Enterprise every minute of every day from now on.

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