Lean manufacturing and teams – Risks involved
Lean manufacturing is a team game. Every successful implementation of lean is backed by its excellent team working culture. Stronger the teams are stronger the results. It is a dream of any CEO to have a dynamic team with excellent talent. No doubt they can change your organization too. That is why team building is a hot topic these days. But I have faced scenarios where there are strong teams and all the people in those teams are excellent individuals and they are very dynamic yet the organization doesn’t achieve the desired results. I am sure you also might have come across teams like these. But interesting question is why this is happening?
Without any doubt teams are in the heart of lean manufacturing. But why sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not? Something every organization must think about. So we will start from understanding the concept of team in lean context. In lean the team is a unit equipped and empowered to satisfy their internal or external customers. But as an organization all of it teams needs to align to cater its customer’s requirements. So from the eyes of the customer the organization is a single team.
Many people and managers build teams around departments of their interest. For an example they will work on building an excellent design team or a manufacturing team. Yes these are very good teams. But these teams if not aligned to the requirement of the organization can do more harm than good. In lean context this is known as sub optimization. For an example, the design team can come up with an excellent design but the manufacturing department will not be able to manufacture it. At the end organization dose not achieve anything from this exercise.
Lean manufacturing starts with its concepts and driven through leaders who live the values of the organization. The leadership must make sure all the teams are aligned to the requirement of the organization. All the teams must pull in the same direction the organization wants not in their own directions. Building teams without proper leadership and vision can lead to problems. So make sure your team building efforts are backed by solid leaders who understand requirements of your customers and live the vision of your organization.
Without any doubt teams are in the heart of lean manufacturing. But why sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not? Something every organization must think about. So we will start from understanding the concept of team in lean context. In lean the team is a unit equipped and empowered to satisfy their internal or external customers. But as an organization all of it teams needs to align to cater its customer’s requirements. So from the eyes of the customer the organization is a single team.
Many people and managers build teams around departments of their interest. For an example they will work on building an excellent design team or a manufacturing team. Yes these are very good teams. But these teams if not aligned to the requirement of the organization can do more harm than good. In lean context this is known as sub optimization. For an example, the design team can come up with an excellent design but the manufacturing department will not be able to manufacture it. At the end organization dose not achieve anything from this exercise.
Lean manufacturing starts with its concepts and driven through leaders who live the values of the organization. The leadership must make sure all the teams are aligned to the requirement of the organization. All the teams must pull in the same direction the organization wants not in their own directions. Building teams without proper leadership and vision can lead to problems. So make sure your team building efforts are backed by solid leaders who understand requirements of your customers and live the vision of your organization.
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