Page 11 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

x Pr ef a c e

room for growth. Thus, this combination of skill, frankness, and lack of sales ability puts
me in the position of having to tell plant managers (PMs) and general managers (GMs)
that their plants are very sick, when, indeed, they are very sick. What they really would
like to hear is that their plant only needs a little tweaking, and that this tweaking can be
done in a few weeks. Furthermore, they often want to hear that I am the person who can
do it, do it after only a few visits to their plant, and that I can imbue a person on the
grounds with such fantastic skills that they will never have to hire another consultant
again. Unfortunately, to their dismay, I usually have to tell them what they don’t want
to hear. I tell them that their plant is really sick (meaning their present as well as future
business is in danger, and that the jobs of hundreds of their employees are also in danger);
that their problems are fixable (if they are fixable, and they usually are), but that it will
take months to fix them, not weeks; and finally I tell them that the specific skillset they
wish to bring to particular employees at their facility will not come in only a few weeks
either.
Thus, my approach is to tell them what can be done, as I see it. I have been in this
business for a long time and have developed the ability to quickly size up problems like
this and make reasonable value judgments about the effort and time it will take to reach
certain goals. However, when the typical manager hears this, he is disappointed and all
too frequently will politely say, “Thank you. Let’s keep in touch,” which translates to
“Adios amigo,” and so off I go.
Losing a good job is bad enough, but my frustration comes from a deeper part of me
that wants to make their facility a better money-making machine and a securer work
environment for their employees. So I am doubly frustrated. Therefore, in this book, I
will offer up numerous examples of these kinds of situations, with which I’m sure you
will be utterly amazed. You may even mutter, “This can’t possibly be true.” But au
contraire… true it is.
I have often thought about this problem—that is, the one about the plant manager
who wants to solve his problem without taking the bull by the horns. I have discussed
it with others, including my wife, psychiatrists, psychologists, my pastor, as well as
dozens of top-level managers. As might be expected, the root cause of this problem has
myriad descriptions—some call it denial, others laziness, and still others say it results
from a “quick-fix mentality.” But the one I keep coming back to is simplistic thinking.
So just what is simplistic thinking? I like to say that there are two groups of people
who can solve any problem—those who know nothing about the problem but its name,
and those who clearly know what is happening.
• For those who know nothing, everything is simple. If you have teenagers, all too
often they fall into this category. Unfortunately, many managers also reside
there. Fueled by success stories that are simplified by TV and literature in
which—in a world of instant gratification—television detectives can solve any
problem in under an hour, and despite facing persistent problems in meeting
ever-tougher business objectives, executives continually want to believe that life
is simple. Well, it is not. Life is not only complicated, it is difficult. It’s easy to
focus on the success stories, simplify them, and ignore many of the bumps and
bruises so inherent in any change initiative. Unfortunately, many believe lock,
stock, and barrel in these fairy tale stories. Even worse, they believe that such
stories detail all the effort involved. This is never the case. Any journey always
involves complications, confrontations, disagreements, and wrong-paths-taken.
To ignore such things makes a story simpler and more publishable, but it does
not make it any more true.