Lean Culture: Do You Want Firemen or Farmers in Your Organization

The successful implementation of a Lean culture is dependent on management's willingness to fully involve and engage their workers in the process. So if Lean is about people the question is what type of people do we want leading the charge. Let’s look at two types: Firemen and Farmers.

The fireman works hard in short bursts. As problems fester they turn into a crisis and flare up. Firemen are need to swoop in a put out the flames. They never know what they are going to expect until they get to the fire. Firemen focus on quick actions. Firefighting derives from what seems like a reasonable set of rules--investigate all problems, for example, or assign the most difficult problems to your best troubleshooter. But firefighting consumes an organization's resources and damages productivity.

Firefighting is popular because it is exciting. Most of us deplore the firefighting style, yet many managers and organizations perpetuate it by rewarding firefighters for the miraculous things they do. If the fix works out, the fire fighter is a hero. If it doesn’t, the fire fighter can’t be blamed, because the situation was virtually hopeless to begin with. Notice that it is to the fire fighter’s advantage to actually let the problem become worse, because then there will be less blame if they fail or more praise if they succeed.

The farmer on the other hand works constantly from sun up to sun down.  Farmers in general take a more steady approach. The work is predictable and tied to a bigger plan. Farmers take the long view, and will work for long time to see it through to completion. 

Farmers are shepherds and develop long term relationships. Farmers are patient with others. The patience that it takes to watch a plant grow for five months is easily translated into patience with a coworker who wants to explain a problem or situation.

Farmers are cautious. Farming doesn’t often demand that a person face short-term danger. Farmers learn, instead, to face the more long-term dangers. They’re often better planners than they are fighters.

Implementing Lean Thinking is a cultural change that requires leadership…because in the end it’s all about people. What type of person do you want leading your change? Fireman or Farmer?

Lean Quote: The Power of Small Wins

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Hundreds or even thousands of little actions added up to some astounding results." — Jim Lancaster, The Work of Management

In 2011 Steven J. Kramer and Teresa Amabile wrote an illuminating piece for the Harvard Business School revealing the number one predictor for worker satisfaction. When over 12,000 worker entries were pored over, they found that employee motivation and engagement was based on whether they had achieved something worthwhile that day.

The efforts of tracking small achievements every day enhanced the workers motivation. Amabile explains that the practice of recording our progress helps us appreciate our small wins which in turn boosts our sense of confidence. We can then leverage that competence toward future, larger successes.

Small wins make habit-building a lot easier. Adjusting old habits and creating new ones is tough. Really tough. And they require a long amount of time in order to create automatically. But when you are starting small, with little, digestible steps it becomes a whole lot easier to bang out a whole bunch of days where you execute your mini-habit.

Small wins help you feel like you're accomplishing something.  If we focus too much on the bigger goals, we’ll feel like we will never get there.  That’s why smaller wins are so important.  They give us motivation to keep on going where it snowballs into the development of the bigger goals.

So, as a people manager make it a habit to help your employees experience small wins over the work day. You will see how powerful those small wins can be!

The Benefits of Lean Manufacturing

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.

I detail many of these benefits below:

Improved Quality – A lot of the activity in a lean environment is geared towards improving quality. As quality issues arise, problem solving techniques are used to root cause the problem. From there, mistake proofing is put in place to strengthen the process and prevent recurrence. As a result, the quality of your product will be improved.

Increased Productivity and Flexibility - In a lean business, employees move parts through the manufacturing process a single piece at a time instead of in batches. The single-piece flow increases productivity and improves the flexibility in production processes. Companies using lean manufacturing processes reduce the amount of time required to manufacture a product, which increases the ability to respond to customer orders.

Total Company Involvement – Lean is meant to involve the whole company. It is not intended to be put into action in only one area. It is a management philosophy which should include every part of your organization. This helps promote the concept that everyone in the company is part of the team.

Better Use of Employees – Lean cuts overproduction by adjusting production to meet customer demand, and it simplifies the product to eliminate extra processing. These activities help your company meet customer demand with fewer employees. Fortunately, this doesn’t require layoffs. As employees are given a chance to increase their skills and abilities, and to fully develop their talent, they will be more productive and effective.

Increased Efficiency – Line balancing will ensure each person in the process is working in the most efficient manner. Standardized work will ensure they are doing it correctly following the same method every time. This leads to repeatability and increased efficiencies.

Optimized Space – Lean principles help reduce excess inventory and eliminate overproducing products. When you are producing no more than what the customer requires and you are shipping all of your products quickly, there will be more physical space on the production floor. This environment is easier to organize and safer to work in. 

Safer Work Environment – Visual management and 5S will help identify when things are out of place. When unnecessary elements are removed from the operation, the workplace becomes much more organized. And an organized work environment is a safe work environment.

Improved Employee Morale – Lean manufacturing methods, when implemented successfully, empower employees to participate in improvements, which can improve worker morale Employee involvement and empowerment will make all members of your company feel like a contributing part of the team. And the reduction of uncertainty in the workplace, as a result of lean, will reduce stress in your team members and lead to improved employee morale.

Lean principles can provide substantial gains for organizations and their employees. By implementing Lean you will become a far more competitive and effective business enabling you to grow your business further.

The Changing Role of Employees In a Lean Organization

We’ve all heard the saying, it takes a village. In a Lean organization this is absolutely true.  We all have roles in our organizations but it takes teamwork to be successful. Lean takes everyone working together.

Change must happen not to, but with employees. Management has to invest in the employees’ understanding of this new environment, create opportunities for employees to develop and run with ideas, and develop a trusting relationship.

Whether an employee is a material handler, a machine operator, an assembler, or an inspector, the plant experience changes as a result of the lean transformation.

The following abilities are essential for a worker to possess in Lean manufacturing environment:

Willingness to learn new skills. The ability to perform a variety of tasks is key to flexibility, which is critical in the Lean enterprise. Being willing to participate in cross training efforts, where workers learn and teach new skills, is the first step. In addition, accepting different types of responsibilities, which may have previously belonged to supervisors, may be required. Tasks such as machine and equipment troubleshooting and problem solving, data collection and analysis, and production scheduling are typical of the tasks workers may face. As workers learn more skills and accept more responsibilities, they will be less reliant on others and more valuable to the organization.

Offer ideas for improvement. We all recognize that management does not have all the answers and must frequently rely on the workers to find ways to make things better. Instead of just “the usual few” workers offering ideas, this type of effort is required of everyone. Whether it is an idea for eliminating waste in an operation, simplifying scheduling, combining operations to improve throughput time or an entirely different approach to making a part, every worker must recognize the importance of contributing something.

Share responsibility for implementing change. Management can no longer be the sole driver of change, and therefore, workers cannot sit back and take a wait-and-see approach. Once a consensus is achieved to change something, everyone must buy in and strive for success. Passive behavior and the “blame game” must be discouraged. Giving less than the best effort to ensure a successful transition is a missed opportunity that may not present itself again.

Transformation to a Lean workplace requires extensive collaboration from everyone for it to take hold. Adopting these abilities will lead to a successful Lean transition. It takes a village to transform an organization.

Lean Quote: Live as If You Were to Die Tomorrow—Learn as If You Were to Live Forever

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." — Mahatma Gandhi

This inspirational quote from Gandhi can change one’s life. The meaning behind this quote is to make the most of every day and to take advantage of the learning opportunities in your life.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow: Don't postpone life-enriching experiences, by making excuses like I can do that next year when I have more time - because without a sense of urgency you will probably end up not doing them at all. Live in the moment and be present in what you are doing.

Learn as if you were to live forever: Never say no to yourself. When you start learning something new it must be with the aim of eventual perfection, not for short-term gains. Learning should never stop; there is always more to be learn on a subject, if you dig deeper into it.

Knowledge is one of the many keys to leading a successful life. The more I know the more likely I am to succeed. I devote time to learn every day, to continue expanding my knowledge. Knowledge provides both a sense of ability and a pathway to success for the future. Learning does not occur in a single period of our lives, but continues throughout them. One could lead a better life by obtaining knowledge to its full potential.

Don’t postpone learning, do it today rather than tomorrow, for even the littlest of matters you learn adds to our collective knowledge. It may seem to you, at times, like no more than a tiny little drop—but then, even the great oceans are made of many tiny little drops, aren’t they?

Educating New Hires to Your Lean Culture

Every organization that has implemented Lean is faced with the issue of how to train new employees so they fully understand the organizational culture and its approach to continuous improvement. Passing along your organizational culture to new employees is as important as any aspect of their training. An effective employee not only understands your organizational culture, but embraces it while performing his duties. There are a number of ways to pass your improvement culture to new employees, beginning at the genesis of their employment.

Share the Vision.

New employees won’t understand what is important unless you tell them. Share the company’s vision and strategy with new hires immediately. Create and align their goals with the vision and strategy of the company. Let your employees know how they will benefit from embracing the vision.

Introduce Them to Lean Principles.

Introduce your new employees to the tools that you use to structure your improvement initiatives right off the bat. This signals how seriously the organization is committed to the Lean methodology. Taking the time to explain all of the acronyms, Japanese words, and process improvement tools will help your new hire acclimate quicker. 

Get Them Involved in Kaizen

There is no better way to learn then by doing and that’s what kaizen is all about. The idea behind Kaizen is that all employees are actively engaged in the regular, incremental improvement of the company. Kaizen involves every employee - from upper management to operators. Everyone is encouraged to come up with improvements on a regular basis. Having them involved on a kaizen in the beginning gets them to use the tools you’ve taught but also the approach to how you solve problems.

By developing this foundation of every employee having knowledge and understanding of the basic principles and philosophies of Lean you’ll indoctrinate them from the beginning. Those early interactions with your company set the tone for the relationship that can last for years to come. The employee’s level of engagement over the long term can be impacted by how you introduce them to your Lean culture. An impactful introduction of your Lean culture can make all the difference.

What way’s do you introduce your Lean culture to new hires?

Lean Quote: Focus on the Future By Acting Today

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The future depends on what you do today." — Mahatma Gandhi

This is a powerful message and one that especially resonates with me. All our dreams and our aspirations can only come true if we do something about them.

Every time we put something off, the excuse is some variation of the same: "I'll get to it later. I won't be long. I've got plenty of time." Once that moment is gone, though, it's gone forever.

While it may be tempting to think that it's okay to put something off, the truth is you'll never get those minutes back. You can allocate future time to doing tasks you could do now, but that's essentially spending on credit.

Many organizations are waiting for the optimum time to change.  Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes.  If you allow it you will always find another distraction.  There is never a better time to start than now.  We really must invest every day in our future since you can't get back lost time.

We can’t expect immediate result, especially if we’re not doing anything. Whatever we want to be part of our future depends on what we are willing to do in the present. Just like what the quote above says, “The future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.”

Don’t spend your time trying to wait till things are perfect. Perfection is elusive. It is more important to get started. And it's better to get something done imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

If you want a bright future then you need to act now, not tomorrow or the next week. Time is the essence here. Losing a day, a week, or a few months can significantly affect our future. So stop wasting your days. Make it happen today!