How can you sustain gains from a lean management initiative?

1 Define and measure success

One of the key principles of lean management is to focus on customer value and eliminate non-value-added activities. To do this, you need to define what value means for your customers and how you can measure it. You also need to establish clear and relevant metrics and targets for your processes, outputs, and outcomes. These metrics and targets should be aligned with your strategic objectives and customer expectations. They should also be visible, transparent, and regularly reviewed and updated. By defining and measuring success, you can track your progress, identify gaps, and celebrate achievements.

2 Engage and empower your people

Another essential element of lean management is to involve and empower your people at all levels of the organization. Lean is not just a top-down initiative, but a bottom-up culture that encourages everyone to participate, contribute, and improve. You need to foster a sense of ownership, accountability, and responsibility among your employees. You also need to provide them with the necessary training, coaching, and feedback to develop their skills and knowledge. Moreover, you need to create a safe and supportive environment where your people can share their ideas, suggestions, and concerns. By engaging and empowering your people, you can leverage their insights, creativity, and motivation.

3 Standardize and simplify your processes

A third critical component of lean management is to standardize and simplify your processes. Standardization means to establish and document the best way of doing things, based on data and evidence. Simplification means to eliminate unnecessary steps, variations, and complexities in your processes. By standardizing and simplifying your processes, you can ensure consistency, quality, and efficiency. You can also reduce errors, defects, and rework. Furthermore, you can enable your people to follow the same procedures, communicate effectively, and collaborate smoothly.

4 Implement and sustain 5S

A fourth vital aspect of lean management is to implement and sustain 5S. 5S is a methodology that helps you organize your workplace in a way that supports lean principles. The five Ss are: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Sort means to remove what is not needed and keep what is needed. Set in order means to arrange what is needed in a logical and accessible way. Shine means to clean and maintain what is needed in a good condition. Standardize means to create rules and guidelines for what is needed. Sustain means to monitor and audit what is needed. By implementing and sustaining 5S, you can create a clean, orderly, and productive workplace.

5 Embrace continuous improvement

A fifth and final factor of lean management is to embrace continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is the mindset and practice of constantly seeking ways to enhance your performance and deliver more value to your customers. It involves identifying problems, analyzing root causes, implementing solutions, and evaluating results. It also involves learning from failures, sharing best practices, and applying new technologies. By embracing continuous improvement, you can adapt to changing needs, innovate faster, and stay ahead of the competition.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?