by Lee Fried, on 26 Apr 2006 09:38 am
The Journey
LEAN > Tools
Recently I took part in a LEAN meeting where we were kicking off a major project. To build support for project we invited a senior leader to come in the morning to talk about the importance of the project and to thank the team for learning/applying LEAN. To my dismay the leader spent most of their time in front of the audience talking about how LEAN is “powerful tool” that can improve processes. The leader continued by stating LEAN is “just a tool” and “merely a tool.” These statements really surprised me, because our leaders have undergone a significant amount of training.
When an organization applies LEAN as just a collection of process improvement tools they are only able to make small, incremental improvements that rarely span departments. The impact at first may be positive in terms of efficiency, but has little positive effect on the customer (patient). Over time the tool approach becomes ineffective and momentum is lost because systematic barriers are never addressed. To successfully apply LEAN it has to be applied holistically within an organization and not only change processes, but also management practices, budgeting and accounting techniques, the role of management, etc. LEAN is not a tool; it is how you run your business. It can not be part of your business strategy; it has to be the business strategy.
on 04 Jul 2006 at 5:56 pm 1.Mike Fiedler said …
We may all be tempted to mistake the TOOLS of LEAN for a ‘LEAN organization’. The organization becomes LEAN only when a shared philosophy guides a group of people working effectively together, to produce the most service, at the lowest cost. Your observation that LEAN is how you run your business fits well with Art Smalley’s observation that too many American implementations of LEAN founder, because they focus on the tools.
[see http://www.superfactory.com/articles/smalley_tps_vs_lean.htm ]