Page 304 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

The Pr ecursors to Lean Not Handled Well 281

How Did the Management Team from ABC Widgets Handle
the Fundamentals of Cultural Change?
Let’s look at the actions of the management of ABC Widgets in relation to the imple-
mentation of any cultural change initiative (see Chap. 6). How did plant management
handle the three fundamental issues?

Did They Have the Necessary Leadership?
The leadership was clearly deficient in several areas. First, when they ramped up, they
had nothing that resembled a plan. Recall that they did scarcely nothing except hope
they could make it work. Next, once they got in trouble, they did not have much of a
plan for that either. They counted on the home office for help that did not materialize.
Third, when it become obvious they could not solve the problem themselves, manage-
ment resisted outside involvement. Finally, as you hear the entire story, a grand defi-
ciency in leadership exists at the corporate level. Lean cannot be managed from afar.
Lean leadership and the problem solvers—need to be on site. There is no substitute
for this.

Their Motivation
So did they have the motivation to make it work? At one level, the answer to this was
“yes,” since they were actively trying to solve the problem—that is, the problem of low
production, once they got into it. But at the larger level, their motivation was grossly
lacking. Motivation is measured by actions. And just what were their actions to make
the plant Lean? Superficial and clearly inadequate. Several years into the initiative they
discovered basic, foundational problems that should have been found and resolved
during the first wave of activities. Yes, problems need to be both uncovered and resolved.
They did not find them because they did not look, nor did they listen to those who
knew about the problems. Just for practice, based on these data, do a commitment eval-
uation on their management. (Turn to Chap. 19 and see how ABC Widgets scores on the
Five-Part test.)

Their Problem Solvers
So, did they have the necessary problem solvers in place? Clearly not. Regarding this
rather straightforward production problem, they could not solve the problems them-
selves. For example, the “help” from the home office was not helpful, and finally, to
resolve the issues, they needed outside assistance.

Think Back to an Earlier Time
For just a moment, think back to the major problems they had prior to the ramp-up.
They had supply and process capability problems of which they were unaware. They
had inadequate machine and line availability. It was only the excess line capacity and
excess inventory that masked these problems. The problems were there from the begin-
ning! They simply failed to “see” them and take them on.
A Lean plant will see these as opportunities and attack them to reduce space needs,
manpower needs, lead-time issues, and inventories, to name just a few. All of this could
have been done earlier, but it was not. It wasn’t even recognized.