Working Lean is About People, Not Tools

“Thinking lean” has become a mantra among manufacturing businesses in order to increase efficiency and to stay competitive globally.

But thinking lean is about more than just learning the concepts associated with this strategy. It’s also about adopting a whole lean mindset, a way of looking at the manufacturing process, according to one expert.

It’s more than just putting the lean process in place and then following procedures. In order to make that process work the way it should, people need to think lean as well, says business consultant Jason Piatt.

One of the important aspects of the lean system is its simplicity, Piatt says. There are two key elements to the system – the first is the Japanese idea of continuous improvement, or kaizen, and the second is having respect for people.

So, you can do a wonderful job of implementing the strategies of the lean system – value stream mapping, kanban, poke yoke – but still not the get the most out of it because you still need to change the business culture.

You need to get your workers not only acting lean but thinking lean, Piatt says. People may understand the lean process, or the theory of how the process works, but the key here is being able to apply the process to a worker’s particular job. Employees need to see the connection between their work and the process.

For example, the mandate for a plant manager has traditionally been to meet production quotas, to make sure there is plenty of work in reserve to keep things moving. In order to handle these issues, the manager would spend the bulk of his or her time in the office.

But in the lean system, the priorities change significantly. Now, the focus is on producing only what customers have ordered, shared problem solving and continual improvement of the production system.

In order to implement this system, the manager needs to get out into the plant, to understand all the details of the production process in order to help workers make the continual improvement, according to Piatt.

The way managers and workers interact also needs to be reoriented. By respectfully working with employees to develop a lean view, managers can get them thinking about how all the processes interact, how they can reduce waste and make production continually more efficient.

It is an ongoing process and requires continual vigilance. People in the plant must be encouraged to solve problems as they develop and to look for why a certain problem developed in the first place, to drill down to find out what the root cause of the problem is.

Lean is about more than just using the tools, but thinking lean as well.

When you need to ramp up staffing during peak production times, think of Arrow Staffing. Ramping up when you need workers, and then keeping just a core group of employees when times are leaner is a great way to safe costs because you’re not keeping people on your payroll when there’s no work for them. Contact us today!

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