Page 305 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

282 Cha pte r Se v e ntee n

The Real Message
What was the message of the ABC Widgets story? The lessons are multiple, but can best
be described by a call we received about three months after our work with ABC Widgets.
The caller was Miguel. We had spoken with him several times since our work together.
He would occasionally call for advice or sometimes just to chat. This call was particu-
larly revealing in that he told us he was taking a new position with a competitor of ABC
Widgets. He was going to be in charge of their Lean implementation. He was changing
companies because, as he put it:
“I was getting so frustrated with our efforts. I could easily see the opportunities but we were
not staffed nor were we structured to capture them. I recall some advice you had given me
earlier when you said, ‘You cannot have a just in time (JIT) materials system without a JIT
support system, including JIT maintenance and JIT problem solving.’ I began to see the
problems caused by our centralized approach, especially the problem-solving issues. When
you were at the plant, then and only then did we have sufficient problem-solving support
and we made great headway. Once you left, progress ceased. In addition, it became obvious
how we had completely circumvented Lean principles when we increased the line capacity.
There were no process analyses, no FMEAs. Only a superficial economic analysis and the
hope that things would go well. It was at this point that I decided our efforts were more at
looking Lean than being Lean. I discussed all these issues with our management and there
was no interest in changing these areas, so I decided to move on.”

Other issues of note here, which are very common in many plants and are always
destructive, are the issues of favoritism and politics. These have no place in dispassion-
ate problem solving and Lean analyses. Lean decisions need to be data driven and
fact-based. Here, the relationship of the reliability manager, Miguel, and the general
manager, Juan Pablo, his father-in-law, created some problems. We found Miguel to be
bright and unbiased. His decisions were fact-based and good. Unfortunately for him,
many others were biased against him since they thought he got his current job because
he was the “son-in-law,” rather than because he was
a good engineer and manager. It was this bias that
Point of Clarity A JIT man- was largely the reason the implementation of auton-
ufacturing system needs JIT omous maintenance had failed. We found that many
problem solving and JIT deci- decisions here were not fact-based. The entire plant
sion making. Hence, central was short on problem solvers, and existing personnel
controls are incompatible with were neither trained in, nor accountable for, problem
Lean! solving. Yet there was no shortage of problems. This
is not a good combination!

Chapter Summary
The problem solving worked and we helped the facility fix their problems. We increased
capacity, improved reliability, reduced labor costs, and reduced inventory as we let
them return to excellent on-time delivery. However, this was not the most revealing
part of this story, which is a sad lesson we must all learn.
Earlier, I had characterized this as a “not-so-Lean-but-we-want-to-appear-Lean”
plant. I hope it is obvious now what I meant. Superficially, the plant had a very Lean