What no one tells you about Lean Management

If the principles of the methodology are rigorously analyzed Lean Management It is concluded, logically, that its implementation in a company of any type will achieve improvements very important both in their daily activity and in their income statement. It is paradoxical, therefore, that it is not widespread in the business sector. Although numerous organizations have made attempts along this line, implementing certain partial modules or carrying out pilot tests in some productive line, it is not frequent to find companies in our daily environment with a genuine functioning Lean. Initially a certain lack of knowledge could be argued, but today most of the entrepreneurs they are already informed, have considered implementation proposals and have made a decision on the matter. The resolution has been, in general, negative or merely exploratory, and it is not ruled out that this type of project will be received with a certain mistrust at management levels. There is no doubt about the qualifications or the capacity of the group of entrepreneurs. Without the need for a more in-depth analysis, the simple fact of keeping their respective companies active in the adverse circumstances in which they have had to operate in recent periods is more than enough proof of their sharpness and degree of success. In this situation it can be illustrative to ask ourselves what does not fit.

If employers, despite their constant efforts to improve the company, do not take this path and the pilot projects do not lead to global improvement programs, the real cause may be a focus error that, generally, is given to the methodology. Thus, there are terms and tools (VSM or value stream map, 5's, kanban, batch reduction, SMED, etc.) that, regardless of their relevance, appear as an obligatory reference in everything related to Lean Management, but importance is rarely attached to other essential aspects, without which the management system Lean appears as something idyllic but utopian. This, logically, can cause suspicion in those who consider embarking their company on this adventure. In addition, these topics that fall into oblivion are generally omitted in projects with a limited scope, such as partial implementations or tests in a pilot line, and they are not even considered if the project consists of the application of any isolated tool. This exclusion usually leads to disastrous consequences, because although significant improvements are initially achieved, they are diluted until almost disappear over time, which leads to abandoning the established guidelines, demotivating when undertaking projects of a similar nature and, let's face it, they discredit the Lean methodology even when an unorthodox use of this denomination is being made.

A key factor for fully successful implementation and enduring is to give a holistic approach  to the improvement project. According to the most popular version of the quote from the philosopher Thomas Reid, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If, as usual, efforts are focused on optimizing a fraction of the company (the factory, for example), without acting on the rest, we would be, according to the analogy, strengthening a link, but the chain will continue to be just as weak. This type of action will not improve either the overall productivity or the effective performance of the company and, after a period of time, the same resources will be required to produce a unit of product and the delivery times will return to the initial values.

The key to the success of the methodology Lean lies in structuring and managing the company in such a way that there is a single common goal to all departments and sections, assumed by each and every one of the people. This sole objective must be: to obtain the final product that satisfies the customer with the minimum cost. To achieve real improvement, the entire company must be analyzed in order to establish an agile and efficient flow of both work and information. To do this, first of all, each product will have been studied and optimized to guarantee customer satisfaction at the minimum cost and both its characteristics and the required processes will have been documented concisely but in detail, to allow its manufacture under the conditions necessary. In addition, each department will focus its efforts on understanding and meeting the needs of the processes that require the results of its work and will develop it with guaranteed quality at the first attempt and at the minimum cost.

With the global commitment of the company, with customer satisfaction and good work in each of its activities, a path is undertaken that allows it to reach unsuspected levels of productivity. Uniting the objectives and efforts of all departments in this purpose may not be easy, but it will be guarantee of success.