Is lean an innovation killer?
Have lean killed your innovative and creative mind? I am
just thinking about this after visiting an exhibition displaying innovations
from a lean manufacturer. They had some cool innovations in display, but I thought
they could have done much more.
Lean by very definition is about PDCA cycles and small
improvements done over a period of time. Continuous improvement projects,
Kaizan activities are among the most popular things in any lean organization. At
least most of these activities are to improve the way they do their work. Improvements
are mostly targeted to solve an issue you have in your hand, not to think about
a totally new way for doing things, or revolutionizing the way things are done.
Lean is much more evolutionary than revolutionary.
If an organization exclusively focuses this kind of
innovations, there is a good chance their competitors coming up with some
completely new way of doing things and taking the competitive advantage. If
Toyota has not revolutionized the auto industry with its JIT thinking, we all will
be driving almost the same car, manufactured in a mass assembly line.
I think it is a mistake most of the organizations commit in
the name of lean. Pioneers like Toyota are not stuck in the area of innovation.
They have come up with tons of industry leading innovations. So next time when
you think about lean and continuous improvement, think about how you can make
room for big ideas and revolutionaries. Once revolutionaries give you the edge,
evolutionary can take it from there to make it much more effective.
by Lonnie Wilson
19 comments:
Lean manufactureing is a condition of your process so IS Lean a condition that would choke off ablitities to minumize resources. I emagine myself as a finely tuned race car going up Pikes Peak. If the Carburator is not ajusted to certain paramiters it will run poorly and burn more fuel and fowl the plugs in doing the same goal. Evaluate your results, know your conditions. Has lean killed your innovative and creative mind? I think we have sharpened the results to a fine point and a car in altitude has certain peramiters. Talon Wise
The root of lean was sown 100 years ago through work simplification or improved method, then TPS, JIT and now Lean, milestones. All innovations, perceived as small or major, are creative, effecting improvement and cumulative effect of the innovative attitude turns to be sometimes expolsive, what you term as revolutionary! Lean is an attitude, mind set up, untiring struggle for doing something better and greater. Hence Lean is not the killer of innovation but boosts up innovation. I am sending my published paper to you that shows how Lean is benificial in education sector.
Lean forgot about the heart of the manufacturing,, the people, the worker who was at the start from the getgo. Most supervisors forgot.. .so they can get that pat on the back from the owner. I have see it ..Right "lean'"!
Aza,
I believe that you are right - there is room for lean (or need for lean), and there is room for innovation (or need for innovation).
They are not mutually exclusive, but depending on the situation / time / context, one might be much more appropriate than the other.
Some additional developments on the subject can be found at:
http://www.globalblackswan.com/articles/six-sigma-kills-lean-kills-absolutely
Best regards,
Jean-Dominique
Lean is much more evolutionary than revolutionary.
If Toyota was not sure that this was another producer of cars that would be revolutionized.
Who has the vision at the "macro" (ie JIT) can make revolution, but my opinion is better than where production is already working on small pieces, the cells, to optimize a small part.
Drop by drop and make an ocean!
Aza,
Rightly said.. Thxs 4 sharing.
Arun Mathew
In a optimization sense, there is innovation with lean management. Incremental one.
The only problem is the lean thinking, that puts every perspective of creativity under lean activities. I've been seeing amon lean thinkers this 'natural' kind of acting... And, if you began to restrict your creativity... so, I think that your capability for learning and for innovating are definitely limited.
Aza,
You were rightly said ,Lean thinking beyond the automobile industry should be necessary ,so we are approaching in apparel manufacturing sector and successfully proven it's beneficial by applying few tools like KANBAN,KAIZEN ,ANDON ,5'S etc.,
I think "Lean is much more evolutionary than revolutionary".
I see lean as an innovation enabler.
I think it is important to not get your product and your process mixed up. Smooth, mistake-proofed, JIT operations free you up to innovate as your energy no longer goes into the production process.
Hi Aza,
thank You! Because of Your blog post we had a very interesting conversation.
With best regards,
Barbara
Mongkol said..
Hi Aza,
thank You for your valuable information.My idea all about lean ,many people said is o.k.but I would like to reflect the lean to the human lean.It is some limit must be considering to servive the life.To make your life or your physical force become weak,it should not be smart as same as your production.Isn't it ?
Hi Aza, What you say is right...........
I do not get a long interesting article from you about Lean Manufacturing. To be honest I said, I worked in the garment company. How do you think in terms of garment manufacturing Lean Manufacturing. Thank you very much. I always wait for your article..
Warm Regards,
Mawardi
Innovation and lean are the two sides of the same coin. Both can and should co exist. The very essence of lean thinking is achieving more with less(ie waste elimination) in a wholistic manner.
hi,
i dont think lean as innovation killer. we have successfully introduced lean concept in garments industry of bangladesh, where we found small innovation by people almost everyday. it may not revolutionary but its innovative. what i feel, lean create a culture of changing the current situation towards improvement in employees mind. thats the most important thing to survive in cut throat competetion. you can copy toyota production system in your company but you cant copy the people who is running the tps in toyota.
Hi AZA,
The topic is very intrusting,thanks for sharing,I think,look at the diffrence now in prodution of Toyota and other european cars to understand the difrence,who they were poinears in cars menufacturing,now strugling for suvival,is it due to lean concept revolution or evolution,I think revolution.
Warm regards
KZBabar.
When I read the above I could remember the past incident "Ericsson versus Nokia - the now classic case of supply chain disruption",... When faced with a supply chain disruption, proactive and reactive supply chain risk management can in fact make or break a company’s existence. One of the most famous (or rather infamous) cases is the fire at the Philips microchip plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2000, which simultaneously affected both Nokia and Ericsson. However, both companies took a very different approach toward the incident, and in hindsight, clearly displayed how to and how not to handle supply chain disruptions.
Thank you about the information.............
Au contraire, I would say lean inspires innovation. How can we do more with less...?
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