Going Lean, Part 3: Lean Tools and Strategies

In the previous Lean Series blog (Part 2), I talked about how to get Lean started in your organization. One of the first things to do when embarking on your Lean Journey is to educate your staff on what Lean is and what Lean isn’t. Aligning your staff to a common understanding is extremely important.

However, once your people know what Lean is, the next logical questions are “How do we do it? What tools and strategies are needed to help us start enjoying successes?” As explained in previous blogs, Lean suggests getting people to change their work habits in ways that will improve both workflow and the bottom line of the organization.

While it may seem cliché, I will use the analogy of the toolbox. A carpenter can’t do all the jobs he is asked to do if he doesn’t have the proper tools. And if a job calls for a pipe wrench, will he try it with a screwdriver? Of course not. To be successful, he needs lots of tools. But even more important is that he knows the purpose of each tool and how to use it effectively.

Managing people and implementing Lean is no different.

There are some specific Lean tools that are described in all Lean books and often referred to as the “hard” tools. 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, and Kanbans are some of the basics. There are also advanced concepts that are used in world class Lean implementations.

The other tools and strategies that help drive Lean success are often considered “soft” tools. Many of these tools fall into the area of people management and let’s not forget that Lean is 80% people and behaviors. The soft tools are easily understood, but tricky to implement, and are, therefore, too often underutilized.

Top 25

Twenty-five of the most critical soft tools that help the Lean Journey success and put structure and organization around the conversations that need to take place, using frameworks to align the people (in alphabetical order):

#1: Barrier Analysis

Barrier Analysis is looking at what barriers exist that prohibit an improvement initiative from moving forward. In other words, it means figuring out what has made an initiative become “stuck” and then coming up with a plan to eliminate those barriers or obstacles.

#2: Brainstorm Management

Brainstorm Management is making sure that brainstorm sessions aren’t classified as a “waste of time” by the participants. This is done by putting structure and process to the session without losing the creativity. It is also important to allow ideas and input to come from everybody in the session, not only from the dominant personalities in the group.

#3: Collaborator Skills

Knowing what skills your employees possess, compared to what skills are needed for their position, and identifying where the skills gaps exist (potentially leaving your department vulnerable) is vital knowledge. On the flip side, your staff may possess skills that are not being tapped into simply because you didn’t know that the people had the skills. Having a profile of each employee can help managers make duty assignments with more ease and certainty during the Lean Journey.

#4: Communications Management

Communications Management is so underutilized today. We assume that people know how to talk and communicate with one another. That isn’t the problem. People talk all the time (sometimes too much) but they frequently talk about the wrong stuff. Communications Management is understanding how, why, with whom, and with what vehicles staff members communicate critical information with others in the organization. It is making sure that communication bridges are in place where needed and minimizing unproductive, inefficient, or ineffective bridges.

#5: Curriculum Development

Organizations need to train their employees. Having a curriculum that flows from level to level and addresses all five areas of skills development is crucial to a learner’s success. Skills and training needs to pushed to the lowest levels of the company so that the best decisions can be made during the Lean Journey.

#6: Customer Service

Without customers we have no reason for staying in business. We all strive to have superior customer service, but do we know what our customers really think about our organization, our products, our services, our policies, our delivery times, and countless other topics? By analyzing the customer experience from multiple angles, organizations can identify areas in need of improvement as well as identify reasons that explain why customers come back again and again. Many of these improvements can reduce or eliminate waste.

#7: Decision Analysis

Decision Analysis is anticipating the impact a decision will have on the company and its staff. The main drive behind this is to make sure that decisions that are made (or will be made), with a positive impact in mind, remain positive as the decisions make their way through the organization.

#8: Delegation Management

Delegation Management is a way to put a process in motion that enables managers (possibly micro-managers) to effectively delegate to their staff without feeling a loss of control. The process also creates check points to make sure that the delegation isn’t simply “dumping.”

#9: Departmental Positioning

Departmental Positioning helps formalize a departmental identity by way of capturing the text, messages, and content for a Departmental Communications and Positioning Guide. By having a single go-to document that aligns the department employees, serves as an educational tool for internal roles and responsibilities, and helps new employees come up to speed faster during their onboarding time, miscommunication and misunderstandings are minimized. When attached to an Organizational Positioning Guide along with other departments, the complete picture of how the various pieces fit together becomes clear.

#10: Directional Efficiency

Directional Efficiency is all about having everybody in the boat rowing in a synchronized fashion. It helps senior management, a team, or a department identify how well aligned they are and where they have areas for improvement. The boat moves along faster when everybody is rowing together.

#11: Employee Awareness

Employee Awareness helps employees get to know each other across a variety of topics that might not typically come up in the office. Nothing too personal but digging into topics that help show more similarities among the team/group than differences. Helping people realize that we have more in common with our co-workers than we thought builds respect, comradery, and appreciation for each other.

#12: Intentional Isolation

Intentional Isolation is a strategic effort to differentiate the company from its competitors in ways far beyond price and delivery. Those are important factors, but there are many other ways to be different in the market and create unique experiences for the customers that both embrace Lean Principles and gain market share.

#13: Internal Restructuring

Internal Restructuring is needed from time to time because of growth, staff changes, and organizational clarity to get to the next level. While often done in a vacuum and on a sheet of paper, making it a more collaborative activity with the senior management and key employees helps build trust, respect, and loyalty.

#14: Organizational Positioning

Organizational Positioning is the parent to Departmental Positioning. It helps formalize an organizational identity by way of capturing the text, messages, and content for an Organizational Communications and Positioning Guide. By having a single go-to document that aligns employees, serves as an educational tool for marketing and future initiatives, and helps new employees come up to speed faster during their onboarding time, the organization has a foundation document that aligns the staff. When complemented with Departmental Positioning Guides, the complete picture of how the various pieces fit together becomes clear.

#15: Planning and Preparation

Planning and Preparation is taking the time up front to determine what it would take to reach specific organizational goals, launch new projects or initiatives, or make significant changes in concrete, tactical terms. This planning helps to understand the readiness before launching, minimizing the need to regroup (and rework) later on, both of which waste time, resources, and money.

#16: Priority Management

With certain projects, the laundry list of things to do seems to go on forever while the resources available (and their skills) seem to be on the short side. Aligning the tasks to complete with the resources and their skills, taking into account deadlines, milestones, and dependencies can be a daunting task without a structured approach to tackling the list of to-do items. Streamlining tasks and priorities is a cornerstone of Lean.

#17: Process Analysis

Process Analysis is taking periodic snapshots of a specific process to ensure that the process is as efficient and streamlined as possible. It is a way to engage process players in the change process and use their improvement ideas to better the process. There is no better way to get their buy-in for changes than inclusion. Major processes should be reviewed every six to eight months to introduce the concept of continuous improvement, reinforce the mindset that change is allowed and expected, and make sure that current processes are properly aligned to the company’s goals and needs.

#18: Process Development

Process Development helps develop a new process (or formalize a really loose, informal process) from scratch. During the Lean Journey, there are many opportunities to think outside the box and try something new. As we know, efficiency comes from having processes in place for people to follow, but how do you go from an idea to a formalized process? For some people this is a difficult task and does not come naturally. Helping people go from concepts or ideas to specifics and creating a step-by-step process is important.

#19: Project Definition

Important projects deserve time to properly scope the work to be done so that time, money, and resources are not wasted down the line. Without a clear objective, scope, and approach spelled out, the project team cannot align their time, energy, and talent to make the project a success. Additionally, without a clear scope, team members can’t define deliverables, secure project buy-in, or define tangible returns for the organization.

#20: SWOT Analysis

SWOT...a four-letter word for some companies that brings up images of wasted time, too much data to work with, and nothing concrete that comes from the grueling session. However, when done well, under focused, timed, and controlled conditions, the results are amazing and very actionable. SWOT can be done at both the org and department levels with interesting results through collaboration and structure.

#21: Task Management

Task Management is looking at who wears what hats, how many hats, and if the hats are the best fit for the person. It is comparing and balancing workloads across employees. It is used to ensure that employees are placing the proper priority to the various tasks under their area of responsibility. Just like Process Analysis, Task Management is something that could/should be done every six months to make sure that how people spend their time aligns with the changing dynamics of the organization.

#22: Team Management

Team Management is very important. I explain Team Management as working with groups of people who are called “teams” by the organization and helping them define their purpose, their product, their goals, and their processes so that the team enjoys success. Great teams don’t happen by chance. They are created through planning, preparation, dedication, and intentionality.

#23: Time Management

Time Management is almost a misnomer. While we can’t “manage” how time advances, we can manage what we do and when we do something to be more effective and efficient during our day. When people get caught up and accustomed to doing tasks that do not add value, that goes against Lean principles. Helping people understand how they spend their days through a lens of value and intentionality, advances in Lean are possible in small, but important steps.

#24: Vision/Mission/Values Statements

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Now multiply this by every employee going on their own path forward, and you can see why having a unified vision statement is important. Coupled with the “why” we are going in this direction (the mission) and what we hold to be our morale compass (values), and organization can move forward with less wasted time, more focused efforts, and a better understanding of the organization. This provides a north star for everyone, moving forward more effectively and efficiently in their Lean Journey.

#25: Waste Elimination

Waste Elimination, while it comes last alphabetically, is at the top in the Lean focus. Looking for and eliminating the 15 forms of waste that exist in organizations and processes is the first and easiest thing to do. Go for low-hanging fruit across the company. No department is immune from having waste embedded into processes. This is not any one person’s fault. The waste has likely been there since the inception of the process. This is not a blame game of who inserted the waste. Instead, it’s an intentional effort to ferret out and get rid of the waste. Additionally, people want to work smarter, not harder, and with less feeling of wasted time and effort. Several small waste eliminations can add up to big impacts and savings.

There are two Honorable Mentions to comment on.

Details Management

The devil is in the details. We’ve heard that over and over. And organizations are not immune to the need to pay attention to details. Whether it is worn carpet in the entryway, a cracked window in the warehouse, a grumpy receptionist, or a customer-unfriendly return policy, these things create perceptions for your staff and your customers. Left unattended, the perception turns into reality, and once a reality in your organization, people might begin to believe that management doesn’t care, so why should they? And so the downward spiral begins…and all counter to Lean Principles that call for small improvements and actions.

Product and Services Management

Organizations are expected to reinvent themselves, their products, and their services on a regular basis, if they want to stay competitive in the marketplace. That reinvention can be quite an expensive investment, depending on the extent of the changes. However, before abandoning a product and beginning development on something totally new, organizations should first look at their existing products and services from all angles to see where smaller, more manageable updates can be made, while still pleasing the customer. By analyzing products and services from 20 different perspectives, organizations may be able to update a product or service without being forced to undergo a total redesign. Small improvements that can have a big impact. The Lean way of thinking.

Some people try to hit a homerun with every improvement initiative. These tools and strategies help uncover and overcome issues – sometimes homeruns, but often singles and doubles. But who defines whether an issue is a homerun or a single? The manager? Hopefully not. It should be the employee because he or she has to live with that issue every day. A single to the manager is often a homerun for an employee.

In conclusion, remembering that Lean is about making small, incremental changes, the tools and strategies outlined in this article help do exactly that. But you first need to learn how to use the tools and be able to identify when a tool needs to be brought out of the toolbox. Should you want help learning more about these tools, that I call Conversation Frameworks, let me know. I’d be happy to provide more information and details.

Additionally, an Organizational Challenges Survey exists to help understand how widespread the challenges are in the company, impacting performance and hindering the Lean Journey advancement potential.

Lean Tools and Strategies: Top 25 “Soft” Tools (not Lean-specific “Hard” Tools)