The essence of Lean is Continuous Improvement, performed at the grass-roots level by Continuous Improvement Teams which meet regularly (usually weekly). Every department or group of workers can have a team. Management gives them the authority to directly implement their ideas for improvement within certain parameters (e.g. cost less than $X). This dramatically changes the culture of the team and the entire organization, providing workers with a sense of ownership and pride. This becomes a major competitive edge which competitors cannot see and therefore cannot copy.
Using Value Stream Mapping, the Continuous Improvement Team identifies each step in a value stream, asking if this step adds value in proportion to its cost in time and resources. Value Stream Mapping quickly exposes the bottlenecks and weaknesses (e.g. error rates) in a process. For more detail, a team can turn one process step into its own value stream map. Value Stream Mapping enables the team to identify and focus on those steps whose improvement will provide the biggest impact on the organization’s performance.
Ishikawa Diagrams, also called Fishbone Diagrams because of their shape, show potential causes of a problem – for example, “Why was this late?”. Each rib of the fishbone lists one cause. The team can focus on one possible cause, making it the subject of its own Ishikawa Diagram. The team can then choose one cause from that diagram, repeating this step until they find a root cause which can be addressed to ensure that the problem is solved. Identifying and solving the root cause often solves other problems as well.
5S is a five-step process (Sort, Straighten, Scrub, Systematize, and Sustain) which organizes a work area so that work can flow efficiently, effectively and error-free. Each item is positioned in the optimum place for easiest, error-free use. This process is useful in almost any environment.
When an organization starts implementing Lean, they also need to implement quality improvement, because Lean requires that each input into a process meets all quality specs. Checking for errors is waste; discarding bad work is waste, and rework is waste. They all cost time and resources and slow a process down, which endangers meeting customer commitments.
It focuses on what the customer wants. Everything else is waste which can be eliminated, thereby streamlining processes and increasing profits/performance. Lean harnesses the creativity and passion of the entire workforce, creating an unstoppable competitive advantage.
Lean has an exceptional ROI. After a modest investment in training the first teams, Lean will start putting money on the bottom line. An organization that implements Lean Continuous Improvement across the board can expect 1-2% increase in capacity per month because of the reduction of waste in their processes! This falls directly onto the bottom line.
Lean has been successfully implemented in almost every type of organization that has people and processes, including manufacturing, banking, airlines, insurance companies, prisons, government, medical offices and hospitals. It works equally well in non-profit organizations.
