Lean
What is Lean, and Why Lean?
The principles of Lean thinking were developed in manufacturing applications in Toyota after World War II. The methods were subsequently found to be universally applicable and were rapidly adopted by other Japanese and Western manufacturing and service companies and, more recently, the public sector. The essence of Lean thinking is focusing on the Value Stream, eliminating all activity, processing and cost that adds no value to the product or service delivered to the customer. Lean thinking also incorporates the five key principles of: value recognition, the identification of waste, the achievement of single process flow, pacing by pull signal based on customer demand and the continuous pursuit of perfection to embed gains achieved
The widespread retention of historical practices, often associated with traditional
thinking, mean that there are many opportunities to eliminate chronic waste
in our operational and business processes. There is a need to develop an objective
systematic approach to waste identification and removal in order to simplify
business processes and reduce business risk.
Design, Development and Delivery of In-House Lean Programmes
The strength of an in-house programme is its ability to focus directly on the needs, culture and learning style of the host company. Services Ltd.’s understanding of this ensures that all our Lean consultants and trainers have years of experience in successfully working with Senior Managers to design, develop and implement customised, company-focused programmes across a range of industries and in both the private and public sectors.
Development of in-house Lean programmes typically begins with Senior Management, as their understanding of the concepts and requirements of Lean and the specific relevance this has to their individual roles are crucial if Lean is to be implemented successfully. Services Ltd. therefore acknowledges the need to customise this introduction in order to meet the specific organisation, and site, history and circumstances and the nature of the Lean programme being introduced. For this reason, Services Ltd. has developed a flexible tailored approach to developing Management Awareness training incorporating an initial site visit to scope the requirement, followed by a two or three day senior management awareness session run on or off-site.
Services Ltd.’s preference is to commence the introduction of Lean in an organisation through the undertaking of a strategic stocktake on-site to evaluate whether the current circumstances are right for implementation, necessary pre-requisites, potential benefits, likely barriers and their solutions. Typically, as well as ascertaining current waste levels, this stocktake will incorporate an initiatives, skills, attitudes, processes, performance, structures and strategy review. Various formats are available for this but, depending on circumstances, one of our preferences is to use a simplified assessment against the EFQM Excellence Model criteria. Following the stocktake an appropriate form and timetable for Lean Transformation can be agreed with local or corporate management.
Lean Audit and Consultancy
What is the potential for waste reduction and Lean Transformation in your organisation? What needs to be done to properly identify, measure and capture waste? What is the scale of the potential saving, what will transformation require in terms of resource, money and time? What skills training and behaviours will be required, who should be developed and how should the transformation be structured and managed? What barriers and risks are involved and how should these be managed?
Services Ltd. offers a Lean Audit Service to help organisations define, scope and plan the potential for Lean Transformation and the activities required. The Audit is available on a packaged basis against a mutually agreed scope. Alternatively, we offer a full consultancy service to support your Lean Transformation process. This covers everything from developing deployment strategy to very specific identification of waste and waste removal in process areas.
Professor Bendell and colleagues will be happy to discuss in more detail our in-house support services. Contact Tony on +44 (0) 115 9455285
