A Concept

9/15/10...In Lean systems, the thinking from a top implementer is it is difficult to sustain Lean improvement, and it is difficult to manage more than 1 Kaizen and 1 Point Kaizen event per month per 100 people. Why? The working concept with my cohort, Gil G., is Lean involves mostly Cross-Functional teams. These teams take people from different areas to work on improvement. The work includes the event, and then the 30 day homework, followed by ongoing sustainment. The ongoing sustainment is the issue. When Cross-Functional teams have to go tell others in their work area to do something different that they had no say in, then the problem of ownership occurs. There is no vested interest or ownership because there was no involvement. However, if the Functional Team is the one involved in the Kaizen event, then there is buy-in across the board because all were involved. Both types of teams have their roles, and are important in different regards, but the Functional (some call it Natural) work teams seem to be the missing component of Lean System Thinking in 2010.

Think about it. Do you like it when others tell you what to do? Or if you are the one who helped make the change, are you not more likely to continue to do it because of your involvement? The key though, is creating an avenue where a person not only has a chance to be heard (IDEA), but also has a chance to DO the idea. This is when the % of sustainment success increases. I think Lean tries to address this issue by having Team Leaders whose job is to 85% of the time audit the Standard Work, so basically what you have is a police force, or mom and dad, trying to make sure people are following what they are supposed to do. We might as well call them Police Leaders. As Deming would say, we create the system people work in. If Police Leaders are required, then they are required, and for heaven sake, do not take them away until you put something better in place. That would be equally as stupid. There are more thoughts on this, but enough for now...