Embrace a Lean Mindset vs Hero Mentality

At first glance, the “hero” mentality might seem like a workplace virtue. It’s the employee who takes charge in every crisis and seemingly save the day when systems fail. The organization’s heroes put in the long hours to get the job done – because, and often ostensibly, because others in the organization do not have the knowledge, judgment, experience, training or skills to do the job.

Organizations that suffer from the hero mentality, are not able to grow their business because their growth is limited to the availability of the hero. When they have many orders, poor quality arises on the projects that the hero is not a part of. The hero mentality becomes are bottleneck for the business to grow.

the hero-based culture is extremely inefficient and creates a rigid environment that lacks the agility to respond to rapidly changing conditions – customers, competitors, product lines, regulations, economics, talent, etc.

The business operational knowledge of the organization lives largely as tribal knowledge in the minds of the heroes and has not been captured and formally disseminated among the “troops.”

The cure for the hero mentality is to adopt a Lean mindset. Lean Thinking is built on principles that promote process efficiency, standardized systems, and continuous improvement. Creating a culture of continuous improvement means celebrating sustainable results, not quick fixes.

Building a Lean culture means rethinking the narratives around success. Instead of rewarding the hero who thrives on chaos, reward those who create stability and drive incremental improvements. The goal is not to eliminate heroism entirely but to use it sparingly and intentionally.

A Lean workplace is not defined by the brilliance of a few individuals but by the collective strength of systems, processes, and empowered employees. By replacing the “hero” mentality with a focus on collaboration and continuous improvement, organizations can break free from reactive cycles and truly achieve operational excellence.

Lean isn’t about being a hero. It’s about designing a system where everyone wins. Only then can businesses sustainably deliver value to customers while empowering every individual to contribute meaningfully to success.

How to Get Started with Improvement in Your Organization

Discovering ways to improve a company provides the opportunity to increase productivity and raise profitability. As a manager, decision-maker or team leader, identifying areas for improvement within your organization is an effective way to make it more successful. Improvements can cover a range of benefits, including increased efficiency, decreased spending and higher customer satisfaction levels.

To help you get started, I’ve outlined below the essential steps for how to make improvements in your organization.

1.     Set Clear Goals

Setting defined goals provides targets for employees to work toward and assess their performance against. It also ensures that employees complete work that contributes to the overall goals of the organization and can be an important step in facilitating projects that require multiple employees or teams to work independently for significant periods of time before unifying their work.

Having a clear set of values for your company is another effective way to improve morale and provide guidance to staff. This can provide guidance for staff on the preferred course of action when faced with a decision during work, and also may provide a positive outlook on what the work they contribute to the company builds toward.

2.     Develop KPIs to Track Progress

To track your progress, you will also need to establish certain metrics or indicators. For this, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your organization relevant to your goal.

KPIs are measurable values that indicate how effectively an organization is achieving its objectives and goals. More importantly, they create a sense of accountability among employees.

Clear KPIs also serve as motivators, as they provide employees with a tangible sense of progress and accomplishment when goals are met, fostering a performance-driven culture.

3.     Invest in Employee Development

Many organizations have a workforce approaching ― or past ― traditional retirement age. Additionally, employees quit for various reasons, including pursuing better opportunities.

4.     Focus on Employee Engagement

Focusing on employee engagement is crucial for boosting organizational performance because engaged employees are more committed, productive, and motivated to contribute their best efforts to the success of the organization. Business owners can take concrete steps to improve employee engagement and help team members feel passionate about their work, deliver their best performance and strengthen their commitment to their employer.

5.     Identify the Problems

Making improvements for the sake of improvements may be well-intentioned, but you can be much more effective when you are focused on fixing a specific problem. This will help maximize your efforts on only the most pressing issues, saving you from analyzing processes that may not need improvements.

Before you start introducing changes, it can be a good idea to make sure you fully understand how the current workflows or processes are functioning. Make sure you talk to anyone already involved in them so that you can get the full picture.

With all of your issues identified, you can start actually coming up with your process improvements. Invite everyone to participate, especially those who are already involved and/or directly affected by the processes you’ve singled out for improvement, and encourage them to explore and remain open to any ideas.

6.     Adopt a Continuous Improvement Approach

Continuous improvement can help businesses to stay ahead of the competition. When businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve, they are more likely to create products and services that exceed customer expectations. When employees are encouraged to identify and implement areas for improvement, they will be more invested in their work. In addition, happy customers are more likely to be loyal customers. By adopting a continuous improvement approach, businesses can bring numerous benefits to their bottom line and workforce.

Leaders should encourage employees to think about and suggest process improvements regularly, as well as encourage collaboration across departments, so opportunities are more easily identified and discussed. Assigning owners to certain processes is also helpful, not just in the context of these process improvement steps but for the long term, so they can be on the lookout for potential opportunities continuously.

When change becomes a mindset rather than a singular event, your organization will be well-prepared for growth—and anything the future throws at it.

The Pros and Cons of Cellular Manufacturing

The other day I was asked about the benefit of cellular manufacturing so I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you.

Cellular manufacturing is a manufacturing process that produces families of parts within a single line or cell of machines operated by machinists who work only within the line or cell. A cell is a small scale, clearly-defined production unit within a larger factory. This unit has complete responsibility for producing a family of like parts or a product. All necessary machines and manpower are contained within this cell, thus giving it a degree of operational autonomy.

Benefits ofcellular assembly include shorter lead times, higher productivity, decreased throughput time, increased flexibility, improved quality and increased output. In addition, communication is usually enhanced, because operators work closer to each other. Assemblers can see each process-what is coming and how fast-and one person can perform multiple operations. Also, multiple cells can easily produce multiple product designs simultaneously, making the assembly line more flexible.

Cells help eliminate waste, especially:

Excess Inventory—A cell will generate inventory only for the output being achieved. Because of a manufacturing cell's layout, excess inventory cannot be tolerated, as there is no place to put it.

Waiting—Operators do not have to wait for supplies or tools as they are all kept in the cell ready for use.

Motion—Workers need not move throughout the plant because everything they need to do their job is kept in the cell.

Part Transportation—In-plant transportation is reduced, as there is no need to truck parts from department to department.

Over-processing—Unnecessary operations (such as packing and unpacking for in-plant transportation) are eliminated in a cellular structure.

Despite numerous advantages, workcells are not always the best solution. In fact, some assembly applications aren't conducive to cells. For instance, cells are often incompatible with low-volume, high-mix production and applications that involve high-cost capital equipment. Equipment utilization rates are generally lower in cells, and if capital costs are high, this can be a detriment.

 

http://www.simsconsult.com/ProsConsLeanManuf/FORMFAB2.pdf 

Assembly cells make sense in certain situations, but they don't work in all plants. When deciding whether or not to use cells, manufacturing engineers must consider factors such as assembly processes and the product being produced. If a part has a short build time with many components, a cell may not be more productive than a progressive assembly line.

Just like anything else, cellular manufacturing is no panacea. It is an operational strategy that, if implemented properly, will provide a new dimension to competing: quickly introducing high quality products and delivering them with unprecedented lead times, swift decisions, and manufacturing products with high velocity.

DOWNTIME and the Eight Wastes

DOWNTIME and the Eight Wastes in Lean Manufacturing

Acronyms are powerful tools for remembering important concepts, objectives, and processes. In Lean manufacturing, one of the most effective acronyms is DOWNTIME, which represents the Eight Wastes. These wastes highlight the distinction between value added vs non-value added activities and provide a framework for process improvement.

The Eight Wastes: DOWNTIME Acronym

The term DOWNTIME serves as a memory aid to identify the eight

categories of waste that exist in any manufacturing or

service-oriented process:

Letter	Type of Waste	Description
D	Defects	Errors in products or services that require rework or result in customer dissatisfaction.
O	Overproduction	Producing more than needed or earlier than required, leading to excess inventory.
W	Waiting	Idle time when people, materials, or machines are waiting for the next step.
N	Non-Utilized Resources/Talent	Failing to use employees’ skills, creativity, and knowledge.
T	Transportation	Unnecessary movement of materials or products between processes.
I	Inventory	Excess raw materials, work-in-progress, or finished goods tying up capital.
M	Motion	Unnecessary movement of people or equipment within a process.
E	Excess Processing	Performing more work or using more resources than necessary.

These wastes collectively create delays, add costs, and reduce customer satisfaction—hence the fitting acronym DOWNTIME.

Value Added vs Non-Value Added Activities

In Lean manufacturing, every step in a process can be classified

into one of two categories:

• Value Added Activity (VA): Work that directly creates value for the customer—something they are willing to pay for.

• Non-Value Added Activity (NVA): Work that consumes time and resources but does not add value from the customer’s perspective.

Research shows that in many organizations, 60–80% of process steps are non-value added activities, meaning most of the time, money, and effort goes into things the customer does not value.

Why Eliminating the Eight Wastes Matters

When processes are filled with waste, the total lead time—the time it takes

to deliver a product or service—becomes much longer than necessary.

By identifying and eliminating the Eight Wastes, organizations can:

• Shorten lead times and deliver faster to customers.
  
  

• Lower operating costs by reducing rework, inventory, and delays.
  
  

• Increase capacity to handle more demand without adding resources.
  
  

Boost customer satisfaction by focusing on quality and value.

Embedding Lean Thinking into Company Culture

The DOWNTIME acronym is more than a teaching tool—it is a practical way to build

awareness of waste across teams.

Embedding Lean principles into company culture shifts

the mindset from traditional “keep busy”

work to one focused on continuous process improvement.

Leaders play a critical role in helping employees understand the difference between value added vs non-value added work and empowering them to reduce the wastes in their daily activities. When organizations invest in developing their people, the impact on efficiency, morale, and profitability can be profound.

Final Thoughts

The Eight Wastes of Lean manufacturing, remembered through the DOWNTIME acronym, highlight how much of our time is consumed by non-value added work. By applying Lean principles and focusing on process improvement, companies can reduce waste, respect their employees’ time, and deliver greater value to their customers—driving both growth and sustainability.

4 Tips for Success When Implementing Lean

Lean Manufacturing is a business improvement philosophy that has developed over many years (as well as a collection of lean manufacturing tools), it is a method to better focus your business on the true needs of the customer to help you prevent waste from being built into your system. When properly implemented, lean manufacturing provides many advantages, which include improving flow (material, people, information, and work) and eliminating waste.

Lean has been around since the late eighties/ early nineties, but despite the enormous popularity of Lean, the track record for successful implementation of the methodology is spotty at best. Companies still make mistakes when implementing Lean.

These mistakes are generally due to simple misunderstandings of the Lean principles, but when something goes wrong, you will not reap the full benefits, and incorrect use of Lean can actually make a situation worse rather than better.

In my experience there are 4 tips for implementing Lean with success:

Create a Strategic Plan Instead of a Project Plan

Lean must first start by deploying a crystal-clear vision all the way down to the entire organization of the company. Companies must determine ahead of time what the vision and direction will be. A proper strategy must assign clear responsibilities and show what resources are to be committed. All employees of the company must clearly understand the company vision and direction and must also understand all KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and measurements used. Metrics and timelines must be defined. Management must decide what core elements are to be deployed and the order of deployment. They also must determine where to start and how Lean will expand throughout the operation.

Focus on Culture Change

Lean is about people. All successful and sustainable business change starts with top management (leadership team). Culture by design requires changing the way that people think and work. That’s difficult to do, because people get comfortable with the way they are. You must establish a foundation so that change can happen. The definition of ‘win’ has to be shared and understood by everyone.

A new lean culture will not develop unless the organization’s leadership team is willing to model and be the examples of the new behaviors.

Address Business Problems

Don’t blindly copy others. Some companies think they will get desirable effects by applying Lean tools that others have gotten great achievements. Tools do not solve problem but rather people do. It is not about the tools it’s how they are applied. A large number of organizations have failed to produce the desired results from the direct and prescriptive application of Lean tools. The tools themselves have been proven to work in many situations. The difference must then be in how the tools were applied, their appropriateness, but not the tools themselves.

Successful implementation of any Lean tool must be closely related to the management philosophy. So we can’t succeed by imitating and copying practices of others indiscriminately, it must be combined with local culture. It is important to continually reevaluate your lean manufacturing efforts. Even when you take the long-term into consideration, changes in your business plan, demand levels and industry trends can create possibilities to further improve your factory.

Train Everyone

The key to implementing any new idea or concept is training. It must be top down training so that everyone is on the same page. The more understanding of what lean manufacturing is all about, why you are implementing it and the expected benefits from it, the more likely you are to get buy-in.

It is very important that everyone in the company become committed to lean culture. In order to make the culture successful, managers and employees need to be aware of waste within the company and be prepared to attack and eliminate it. Making sure that the employees are empowered to do this, not just pushing the job off on someone else, is imperative in the proper function of lean culture.

Ensuring everyone is on the same page will help to avoid conflict. At the same time, it is important to ensure people have the space in which to think about what improvements they think need making.

Implementing a Lean manufacturing program is a continuous process. The success of one stage builds up the momentum for the next one. Most of the implementation challenges stem from human resistance and incomprehension of advanced work tools. Companies can achieve accelerated success by instilling a culture of change among employees, and can also leverage digital resources to improve data collection, analysis and utilization.

3 Principles and 4 Rules to Remember that Will Guide Your Lean Journey

Lean manufacturing is the continuous improvement methodology of choice for companies around the world. It’s a people-oriented practice that focuses on reducing production lead times within your operations. These practices create a framework that emphasizes eliminating activities that do not add value for the customer, and focuses on reducing cycle, flow, and throughput times.

These Lean principles can be applied to any team, in any organization, in any industry. Practicing Lean effectively hinges on knowing how to apply Lean principles effectively in your business environment. The main thing to remember: Lean management principles focus teams on driving continuous improvement. When Lean is implemented effectively, teams and the processes they use to deliver value to customers grow stronger over time.

For me there are 3 key principles that guide the Lean Philosophy:

Lean Principle #1 – Make to Use (the ideal Target Condition, “True North”)

A Lean process emphasizes getting the right things to the right place at the right time in the right quantity.  These Lean ideals are a vision for your organization. They provide ‘True North’ direction toward which every member of your organization is commonly striving, and yet may never fully reach.

• 1x1

•        Process parts one at a time ( i.e. not batch processing )

• On Demand

•         Make the exact amount the customer ordered, when it’s ordered.

• Defect Free

•        Product conforms to customer’s specifications and expectations.

• No Cost

•         Look for simple low cost solutions.

• Immediate

•        The “system” should tell you immediately if there is problem.

• Safe

•        Physically AND emotionally

Lean Principle #2 – Eliminate Waste

Lean principles aim to identify the waste found in nearly every business and minimize or completely eliminate it, if possible. Using the acronym “DOWNTIME” reveals the 8 types of waste Lean Manufacturers target:

• Defects can lead to rework/salvage and scrap. It is arguably the most costly type of waste, especially if a defective product makes it to the customer.
• Overproduction is making more products than that which is ordered, potentially causing an inventory shortage and wasting labor hours that could be used elsewhere. Additionally, the manufacturer runs the risk of having obsolete inventory if the customer that generally uses the product decides not to order more.
• Waiting comes in several forms. The most obvious, perhaps, is a line shutdown while waiting for parts or equipment repair. Finally, there is in-process waiting that occurs when an employee has to wait for a machine to process before he or she can take the next step in the process.
• Not using people’s talents is a waste of their abilities, and it could hold a manufacturer back when it comes to innovation.
• Transportation happens throughout the manufacturing process, from the supply chain to material delivery and specific production areas.
• Inventory has five major categories: finished goods, sub-assembly, raw component, office supplies and Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO). Obsolete or overlooked inventory can build up in all of these areas, taking up valuable space.
• Motion includes bending, reaching, lifting and walking. Something as simple as sharing a tool between workstations can lead to a lot of wasted motion in retrieving it.
• Excess processing happens whenever time is spent on product features that do not impact part functionality. For example, painting a part that won’t be seen is non-essential and excessive, provided it still functions properly without paint.

Lean Principle #3 – People are the Cornerstone

Empowering employees is the ongoing process of providing the tools, training, resources, encouragement and motivation your workers need to perform at the optimum level. When you show an employee you trust them and give them timely information and the authority to find solutions, they will be able to solve problems and provide solutions more rapidly than someone without that empowerment.

• Engage all human resources toward the effort of reaching True North
• Provide information:  lack of knowledge is a limiter to waste elimination.
• Knowledge = Speed (Knowledge is the limiter to waste elimination)

Lean management derives from the Toyota Production System (TPS) where a set of rules provide a structured approach to improvement. They create structure in our systems. Without rules there would be in chaos. Lean rules provide the guidance needed to implement improvement, explaining the “why” behind lean tools and the Six Sigma methodology. Lean rules also help develop new solutions to problems. For everyone in an organization, these rules help structure activities, connect customers and suppliers, specify and simplify flow paths, and bring improvement through experimentation at the right level.

The Principles of the Toyota Production System can be summarized into four basic rules.

Rule 1: All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
Specify in advance the exact Content, Sequence, Timing, and Outcome of work.

• Content (what is being done?)
• Sequence (in what order?)
• Timing (how long should it take?)
• Outcome (what clearly defined measurable results are expected?)

 Establish predictable outcomes for each process so shortfalls and over production are immediately apparent.

Rule 2: Every customer-supplier connection must be direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes-or-no way to send requests and receive responses.
Interaction between Humans, Materials, and Information should be Clear, Direct, and Binary. No ambiguity.

Create a workplace that is:
     Self-ordering
     Self-improving
     Self-regulating
     Self-explaining

What is supposed to happen, does happen, on time, every time.

Rule 3: The pathway for every product and service must be simple and direct.
Organize for uninterrupted flow with simple, direct paths for work flow. The pathway should not be subject to interpretation on a case-by-case basis. Build in self-diagnostics so when a path is not being followed, it should be obvious and immediately correctable without too much time passing or outside intervention required.

Rule 4: Continuously Improve
Develop leaders who can apply the scientific method to improve anything. Allow improvement to come from the source by those doing the work - as close to the problem as possible. Respond directly to any problem that arises with clear helping/coaching chains. Whenever possible, start as an experiment supported by a coach.

When it comes to using Lean principles in your organization, let these Lean management principles guide you. Embrace the Lean mindset. Consider your options carefully – even if it means making organizational changes to fully support your initiatives. This will lay the foundation for a successful Lean experience.