Insights, thoughts, and experiences on lean management and continuous improvement.
About 50 years ago, in the industrial or business world, you brought in the “expert” to work out the best way of working to minimize time and effort. In a typical large size factory, it was the industrial engineer; often in smaller set-ups, it was the owner themselves. Others followed the established method and just did the repetitive task set for them. Once the process was set, it was known as standard method.
Ten years ago, while working for a multinational, we had to do extensive regular reports to demonstrate the health of our business. We often got lost in the maze of KPIs. During a lunch break of one of such monthly review session, my MD turned to me and asked me, “If you were running this business, what will be your number one focus?”
My answer was Lead Time, without any hesitation. He took it in without saying much to me; his expression indicated to me he was mulling it over. In the following weeks and months, I could see that penny had dropped. The changes were on the way.
Lean is a methodology centered on preserving value while minimizing input.
Modern management has its roots in industrial engineering, which developed over two hundred years of industrial revolution. Industrial engineering was perhaps overly focused on improving a work station individually. In Japan, Toyota developed more encompassing concepts and practices and called it Total Industrial Engineering (TIE) – later, this would become known worldwide as the Toyota Production System (TPS).
The key differences from classical industrial engineering were concept of pull, flow, visual management and use of creativity of hands-on people. One can say lean is holistic in business terms.