Lean manufacturing failures often occur due to companies’ superficial understanding of the concept, the lack of support from top management. The focus on production processes while neglecting other crucial aspects, and the expectation of quick results without embracing the underlying philosophy of lean manufacturing.
General Question : Why Lean manufacturing failures ?
Companies embarking on the path of development of lean manufacturing in India often have a very superficial understanding of why they are doing it. In most cases, their efforts are wasted. Since the desire to develop this area is very quickly lost. There is a persistent misunderstanding of why this is being done at all, and the main paradigm is that “we paid money to the company”, “hired a specialist”, so let them work for the result, but in the end nothing happens.
Ignoring heart voice of Lean
As a rule, the development of lean manufacturing begins in workshops, production sites.
As a result, many even manage to quickly get some positive results thanks to the use of the most common tools of lean manufacturing (5S, standardization). However, the further development of lean manufacturing, as a rule, is significantly inhibited, since support is required from other structural divisions of the enterprise.
The most importantly at this stage – top management. And they are not. And, as a rule, even representatives of organizations that carry out work on the formation of lean production on a contractual basis and are. In essence, independent people with an blundered view and often not personally taking an interest in reaching the minds and hearts of management.
The main reason for this state of affairs is the heads of companies. They often do not understand or do not want to understand that it is necessary to delve deeply, practically immerse themselves in the philosophy of lean manufacturing, pass it through themselves so that it works in full force.
Therefore, those rare enterprising employees (who, as a rule, make up the Lean office team) eventually bend to the existing reality (this process rarely takes more than a year) and the company’s short-term goals become a priority. As a result, the development of lean manufacturing is coming to nothing. It turns out a kind of Tuckman model in reverse.
Everything dwarfs against the company culture
The list of the main problems that hinder the successful development of lean manufacturing at domestic enterprises. (Fortunately, there is already enough material for evaluation).
Looks something like this:
- Lean does not become an overarching philosophy of the company.
- People, seeing the inertia of top management, oppose the processes being implemented.
- Companies prefer to deal only with lean tools, shying away like hell from incense when it comes to transforming the system.
- The development of lean manufacturing should begin not in the production workshops, but at the level of top management with the planting of the Hoshin-Kanri culture and only after making sure that top management understands why they need to move to a new level to move to the production site.
- Concentration on production processes becomes the reason that the company simply “forgets” about such things as inventory management, personnel development, etc.
- Companies often, due to some incredible paradigm, blindly believe in the inevitability of quick success and very quickly lose interest in lean manufacturing without finding it.
Delving into the very essence of the problem it becomes clear that the main reason for failures in the development of lean manufacturing is the culture of the company. Most directors and owners pay attention only to the set of tools used to manage information and material flows but forget about the management philosophy.
Work for Life !
They do not pay attention to the people who make up the main assets of their companies. The mission of an enterprise such as “Work for Life” today is considering quite normal, despite the obvious, degrading sound.
There is an interesting experience of “One company” Plant. Which, in addition to the average standard wage for all workers, proclaims its mission to completely avoid the tools of labor that humiliate human dignity and are elements of slave labor – a wheelbarrow, a crowbar, a shovel.
This is the mission – people, I am sure, will be active participants in such processes with much greater interest than the describing version of the mission at the beginning of this paragraph.
I have no patience
Many executives simply don’t understand the value of a corporate philosophy and don’t have the patience (and sometimes the skill) to shape it. Slow, gradual improvement does not lead to short-term results, career growth in the value of shares.
Often, a manager is calls upon for a short time in order to achieve a specific result of profitability, restructuring – where is the company’s development strategy, rethinking philosophy, etc.
Successful implementation at a subconscious level of such a philosophy as lean manufacturing requires rather rare qualities from people and organizations:
Constancy of goals and a desire to develop throughout the historical period. Only gradual daily transformations can turn into tangible results. Those companies that have understood this are living quite successfully today – you can breed a lot of criticism about whether the methodology for evaluating it.
For example, is good or not, but what can be say for sure is that it throws into the backyard the history of enterprises that decide to play lean production and show everyone their imaginary improvement of the system – once is enough for them to understand. That they did not plunge seriously and in the wrong place. Such analytics are available and clearly traced.
Be clear – why Lean manufacturing failures
The problem is that in most companies, managers, having introduced the rudiments of lean manufacturing tools and proudly broadcasting to the world. That they now have a modern Lean system, expect lightning-fast results from the projects being develop or an incredible increase in the productivity of their workers. However, all this only sounds beautiful. In fact, nothing of the kind happens.
Therefore, I would like to once again voice the idea that has already been express more than once – think, gentlemen, managers, why do you need it and, having decide, do not go astray, do not make a mockery of yourself.