Thursday, December 08, 2005
Lean Implementation: How do we change the culture?
How do we balance culture change with tool implementation?
Change the culture first? When to introduce Lean tools? Study psychology?
How to Get Management on Board?
Train Management first? Create / Hire top team? How do we keep it from collapsing?
How Do We Make Measurement and Rewards Support New Desired Behaviors?
On the floor? In the office? On the balance sheet?
How Should We Engage & Stimulate Employees? Possible Tools:
Quick & Easy Kaizen, Employees as teachers (e.g. "Training Within Industry"), Reward systems, Employee development & Training
What Would Deming Do?
What are the systems we should be looking at? How do they interact as a whole?
This group intends to create a Lean Implementation Model and/or a Lean Culture Assessment tool. The work may be documented and disseminated through future articles, books, presentations, meetings, and webinars.
Lean is more than a collection of tools. Its heart is people learning and improving together.
The human side of lean is often glossed over, resulting in painful implementations and the lack of sustainability.
Change the culture first? When to introduce Lean tools? Study psychology?
How to Get Management on Board?
Train Management first? Create / Hire top team? How do we keep it from collapsing?
How Do We Make Measurement and Rewards Support New Desired Behaviors?
On the floor? In the office? On the balance sheet?
How Should We Engage & Stimulate Employees? Possible Tools:
Quick & Easy Kaizen, Employees as teachers (e.g. "Training Within Industry"), Reward systems, Employee development & Training
What Would Deming Do?
What are the systems we should be looking at? How do they interact as a whole?
This group intends to create a Lean Implementation Model and/or a Lean Culture Assessment tool. The work may be documented and disseminated through future articles, books, presentations, meetings, and webinars.
Lean is more than a collection of tools. Its heart is people learning and improving together.
The human side of lean is often glossed over, resulting in painful implementations and the lack of sustainability.
/posted by Unknown @ 12:34 PM 
Comments:
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One key reason is that when we Benchmark we pick up the obvious such as the tools and fail to see the underlying culture that allows it to happen.
“During a recent visit to Toyota in October of 2005 - experienced leaders within Toyota kept telling me that these tools and techniques were not the key to TPS. Rather the power behind TPS is a company’s management commitment to continuously invest in its people and promote a culture of continuous improvement.”
(The Toyota Way; J Liker)
While it is usual within the implementation of corporate wide Six Sigma and Lean to program to spend time with senior management helping them to understand what is required from them, the majority of the time is spent teaching team leaders and team members the tools. A common complaint from many team leaders is the difficulty of getting support during the project despite having a Champion and their apparent commitment. Too many senior managers see that their commitment and involvement is demonstrated by the fact that they have agreed to and paid for the training. Now, they are free to turn their attention back to what they see as the company’s important issues.
This lack of consistency reminds us of Deming’s first point:
“Constancy of Purpose”.
Much of the current training misses the point that in order to have sustainable improvement then the basic way of thinking has to change at the top.
“During a recent visit to Toyota in October of 2005 - experienced leaders within Toyota kept telling me that these tools and techniques were not the key to TPS. Rather the power behind TPS is a company’s management commitment to continuously invest in its people and promote a culture of continuous improvement.”
(The Toyota Way; J Liker)
While it is usual within the implementation of corporate wide Six Sigma and Lean to program to spend time with senior management helping them to understand what is required from them, the majority of the time is spent teaching team leaders and team members the tools. A common complaint from many team leaders is the difficulty of getting support during the project despite having a Champion and their apparent commitment. Too many senior managers see that their commitment and involvement is demonstrated by the fact that they have agreed to and paid for the training. Now, they are free to turn their attention back to what they see as the company’s important issues.
This lack of consistency reminds us of Deming’s first point:
“Constancy of Purpose”.
Much of the current training misses the point that in order to have sustainable improvement then the basic way of thinking has to change at the top.
# posted by 
: 12:45 PM
: 12:45 PM
Karen,
This is a great idea. I haven't been able to participate lately (hopefully that will change soon) and this can be a great way to stay engaged when unable to call in on Tuesday evenings.
Chuck
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This is a great idea. I haven't been able to participate lately (hopefully that will change soon) and this can be a great way to stay engaged when unable to call in on Tuesday evenings.
Chuck
# posted by : 1:16 PM
: 1:16 PM << Home
