Lean leaders abandon process improvement when the road gets bumpy.
Lean requires commitment. It is easy to have that dedication when the philosophy has proven itself in the organization. But when the culture of continuous improvement is in its infancy, it is easy to lose one’s way. A common challenge that leaders have is resisting the urge to abandon a process when things are not perfect.
3 Comments
Christian Paulsen · April 20, 2011 at 7:36 pm
That makes a little more sense. Most of my work is in automated food processing plants which is a different game in some ways….
Jeff Hajek · April 20, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Granted, the andon example I only heard about in one instance, but the expedited orders is a fairly common situation. It basically entails a boss shuffling around a work sequence despite having established pull and one piece flow.
A more common situation is when a boss asks for some extra output to meet a demand spike, but the math doesn’t add up.
I think with best practices, you can sometimes get better short term output by taking shortcuts, but it causes longer term problems. Consider maintenance. You can skip it for a while and speed things up, but long term, it will catch up to you.
Christian Paulsen · April 20, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Jeff,
These examples are hard to believe but I’m sure that they have happened somewhere. Your suggestion is a great way to respond to what sounds like poor leadership.
It’s a little more understandable if a leader doesn’t pursue a full root cause analysis in the heat of the battle. You have to prioritize at times. But to set aside a best practice because you are in a hurry sounds is pretty bad.
By definition, the best practice should be the most efficient way to make a satisfactory product for the customer. Is this leader saying that the best practice isn’t efficient or is he willing to ship substandard quality to the customer? Maybe he’s willing to hurt someone to fill the order? Interesting….
Chris