Lean is not about change without a plan
Any organization will change with time due to many reasons. This is why managers call “Change is the only constant”. But should we chase the change or should we allow it to come to us. In either case how do we manage it? These are series of questions we have to ask ourselves when we try changing something. Especially in the context of lean manufacturing when it demands us to change continuously.
The term change is misused by many organizations especially in the name of lean. Any change should add value to the customer. If not that change is just a waste adding cost and confusion than doing any good to the organization.
In the context of lean, continuous improvement or Kaizan can demand continuous change. But kaizen events will be inline with the requirements of the organization for it to achieve the best. It is not random set of events happening in uncoordinated manner. It is well organized and planned.
In most of the organizations they misuse the words like Kaizen and continuous change in order to hide the inefficiencies of the organization. People will do certain things without planning and without analyzing the decisions in deep. When those decisions go wrong they will change the changes they made earlier and will call it lean manufacturing. Some lean consultants call this LAME not lean.
So if you are lean, think about the plan and what you are going to achieve before making the decision to change. Changing the change continuously is not lean.
3 comments:
Absolutely right. In some cases, it is believed that planning or structured decision making can go into the category of waste. Perhaps this view is given by the operational nature of Lean.
In one of my earlier blogs, I had mentioned the pitfalls of using a ‘Pull Production’ in case of a remanufactured product where there is a combination of new and salvaged percentage of components. Even with a new product manufacturing and pull production, you may not have optimized your global supply chain.
http://www.infosysblogs.com/oracle/2009/02/pull_production_have_you_achie.html
Agreed. I have seen organizations attempt engage in Lean or Six Sigma programs, only to learn that these approaches are difficult and require disscipline. Rather than adapt to the proven standard, these companies will often "soften" the approach so that it will "better fit their culture". This is nothing more than laziness. When the bastardized program fails, they will blame the lean or six sigma methodologies when in fact, they never used them in the first place. They tried their own versions in order to maintain a comfort level in synch with the status quo and lost.
At StrategiCorps, we use Targeted CPI, which aligns various methodologies with the Balanced Scorecard. This enables deliberate deployment and focused results.
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