I’d like to focus this blog’s message to those who have already launched their Lean efforts in the last two years. Undoubtedly you have seen some “successes” and also some “failures.” I intentionally put these words in quotes because I believe that they are relative terms that are interpreted differently by people.
To some people, making any forward progress with Lean or moving into a more proactive mode is considered a success. To others, making small advancements isn’t enough so they consider the progress as a failure, disappointment, or not meeting expectations. You will always be able to find people on both sides of the fence.
Because somebody in the organization will feel that this “Lean thing” isn’t delivering to the promises, the best thing an organization can do is make sure that those things that typically drive lackluster results are avoided. By reducing implementation “setbacks” you will also reduce the pool of naysayers.
If you’ve been reading this series of blogs on Lean, the Top 5 drivers of Lean implementation setbacks will not be a surprise to you. However, it merits taking the time to pull these ideas together one last time. But before I get into that, I’d like to tell you a story about one of my clients.
I was asked into a small (35 employees) plastic injection molding manufacturer to do some Lean Kick-Off work. They had been talking about Lean for about 4 years, but never got anything going. The company was privately held.
During my first meeting with the general manager, he told me that he had two priorities – reduce set-up time and install robots on the production lines. I asked if I could interview the employees in groups to hear what their priorities were. He agreed and I took a few hours to interview the staff in groups.
One priority that came through in each interviewed group was a revamp of their scheduling process. Their business required being flexible to meet the needs of the customers. However, the line supervisors and set-up people were extremely frustrated with a schedule that changed daily, sometimes hourly. Even more frustrating to them was that the schedule was changed in the computer, but the set-up people only printed the schedule at the beginning of the day and then worked from that, unless somebody told them that a change had occurred or supplied them with an updated schedule. They spent many hours a week setting up a mold and the production run only to find out that the schedule had been changed and they needed to change the set-up. Hence, the long set-up times they were experiencing.
Another priority that came up was in a small, five-person department. This department was so small and “off the radar” that they often were “forgotten.” This group took plastic pieces and did secondary work to them – labels, subassemblies, etc… Their biggest challenge was that they would run out of glue. Yes, I said glue. They had a special glue that affixes labels extremely well. However, this glue needed to be refrigerated until used and it costs $18 per small bottle. But here are a few more details: The refrigerator was not in their department. It was in the plant manager’s office, and they didn’t like to bother him by going in and out several times a day. Consequently, they would wait until he was out of his office and then they would go in to get the glue. Sometimes they went in to get glue and there was no more because they hadn’t told the manager to order more. In these cases, they would have pulled the parts, collected the labels, set the jigs, and then went to get the glue, only to find out that there was not enough or any at all. To get more glue took up to five days without paying expedite fees, so they put everything back and waited for the glue to arrive. Then they started all over again pulling the parts when the glue arrived. Everybody was frustrated, but nobody took the initiative to fix the problem until after having the interview, hearing the story, and putting a reorder card system in place in the refrigerator. Such a simple solution for a problem that was creating an amazing amount of waste.
I wanted to share these stories with you because having a disconnect between what management believes is important and what employees believe to be important is one of the Top 5 drivers of Lean implementation setbacks. The Top 5 list follows.
Lack of Management Support
It starts at the top. If management isn’t fully on board with Lean, it will manifest itself in the areas under that person. Management needs to eat, live, and breathe the Lean principles and show the employees that everybody will be expected to embrace Lean, be held to the same standards, and make decisions in the Lean spirit.
If there is no Lean Champion in the company to help guide, train, and measure, the implementation will stagnate down the road because nobody is watching the progress and holding people accountable.
If management doesn’t recognize efforts at all levels of the organization, or allow supervisors and managers to recognize people, there will be less and less effort put into the Lean initiatives.
Lack of Management Focus
If your management team doesn’t have a vision or direction for the company, how can the employees move the company forward toward its goals? Management needs to be very clear of what is to be accomplished and why.
Don’t create an activity just for the sake of being able to say that you are “doing Lean.” Have a purpose and goals. I heard of one company that was in its third year of 5S (cleaning and organizing work areas). They had no clue why they were doing 5S because it wasn’t tied to their strategic business plan. In fact, they didn’t even have a business plan. They wanted to be able to say that they were “going Lean” and 5S seemed like an easy place to start. That is true, but activity needs to have a purpose.
I like to create focus by having people learn the 15 forms of waste and find ways to reduce or eliminate waste throughout the organization. Waste reduction will positively impact the bottom line, it is hyper-focused, and it will send a very clear message to the employees that they and their time are valuable to the company. It also frees up their time to consider the larger change projects that management might have in mind.
Lack of Empowerment, Responsibility, Accountability, Expectations, and Recognition
OK. I know I threw several words in this group, but they are all important and closely related. If employees are empowered to make decisions and changes, Lean initiatives will flourish. Lean is top down in vision and direction and bottom up in changes and behaviors. It takes both to get long-term, world-class results.
However, before you can empower employees, they need to know their area(s) of responsibility and how they will be held accountable for their decisions and actions. If you allow Lean to be everybody’s job implicitly and nobody’s job explicitly, your Lean initiatives will have setbacks down the road.
And please don’t forget to set clear expectations for the people. Explicit expectations far outweigh implicit expectations. As a company, if you’ve turned your Lean initiative into a program, instead of a way to run the business, you’ve set the expectation that people should also treat it as a program that may go away in the future. This counters long-term thinking and decision-making.
And last, but not least, make sure there is a recognition program in place to show your appreciation for the work that people do. People will repeat those actions that get positive attention and reinforcement.
Too Much at Once
The big ideas are great, but remember that people have daily tasks and responsibilities. When companies try to do too much at once, it’s just too much for the people to manage on top of their daily responsibilities. Very often the same key people become overloaded with too many projects at the same time and not enough time to get everything done. This leads to burnout and potentially losing the person. This is especially common in smaller companies where the resource pool is limited. Instead, focus on smaller, key improvements that will drive other results.
Too Much Management-Centric Focus
As we saw in the plastics company story, it is important to be aware of and in tune with what the employees feel is important to change from their perspective. They have their challenges to overcome and are looking for somebody to help them resolve their problems. (That low-hanging fruit that they see every day.) The company could have pushed forward with robots, but they would still have run out of glue – only at a faster pace. Management could have continually measured and cracked down on reducing set-up times, but as long as the scheduling problem existed, set-up times would suffer.
The moral of the plastics company story is to have management-centric ideas (big picture, strategically motivated ideas) in mind, but first address the employees’ day-to-day challenges. Employees will have little to no time to devote to big projects/changes as long as their daily routines pose challenges for them. Why did the company talk about robots for years without taking action? Key players in the departments could not get their heads around such an undertaking with all the other things that were consuming their time.
Focus on your change agents – your employees – first if you want to avoid a Lean progress setback.
Implementation Setbacks: Top 5 Setbacks
#1: Lack of Management Support
#2: Lack of Management Focus
#3: Lack of Empowerment, Accountability, and Recognition
#4: Too Much at Once
#5: Too Much Management-Centric Focus
Final Thoughts on Lean
Always remember that Lean is 20% equipment or technology and 80% people. Most people get that reversed. Getting people to change old habits, behaviors, and actions is not easy. Employees will be cynical, mistrusting, and scared at first if changes are forced on them without their input. However, they will be eager to change things that frustrate them, are wasteful to them, or inhibit their productivity. Management needs to step up to the plate and build trust through actions, not speaking.
Good luck on Lean.