Learning the lean principles and concepts should be the third step for most companies when launching their first lean initiatives. Why? Because they don’t have strong teams in place that can continuously fuel the lean engine once the initial excitement of the first kaizen events wear off.

LEAN STOPS HERE
The Journey To Teams describes the road map every company should follow to overcome the roadblocks companies face when introducing lean for the first time:

• Problem #1: Traditional supervisors don’t want to give up their authority and challenge team members and as a result don’t know how to develop employees’ abilities to handle challenges.
• Problem #2: Many employees are in the habit of not thinking at work, and look with suspicion upon a supervisor's effort to give them challenges.

LEAN STARTS HERE
Management will introduce lean as the stated direction of the company but there is no doubt who owns it once it’s been launched. Lean by itself won’t make your teams better and will probably make them worse if they’re already in disarray. Lean requires teams to behave like high performing self directed units in order to survive. If they’re not yet capable of operating at that level lean will soon come to a screeching halt. Lean will get the blame but nothing could be farther from the truth.

LEAN FUEL
A team at first, accepting change, then expecting change as part of the daily routine and then leading change (third step as described above) is one of the critical aspects that determine lean success or failure. The Supervisor must shed their role of babysitter and firefighter and become the spark that leads teams to continuously improve. Without this continuous fuel, lean, like other strategies before it, becomes just another passing fad.

TEAMS NEED TO BE CHALLENGED
Lean provides the perfect tool set to help teams meet the challenge for continuously improving. 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Set Up Reduction and more all can play a role in moving the companies goals forward in achieving improved quality, cost efficiency and superior customer service. Visit the section on our other book, The Kaizen Revolution, to learn more about lean thinking and how it can benefit your company.

We wish you tremendous success in your efforts in creating high performing, self directed teams. Don’t settle for mediocre teams because that’s the way it’s always been. Creating effective teams that deliver results your company cares about is a journey but one that is within your reach.

The Journey To Teams provides the road map you can start using today to put your teams on solid footing to become successful at lean for years to come.

Every pair of hands comes with a free brain. The Journey To Teams will show you how to use the free stuff too.

Mark Slattery and Michael Regan

 

The most frequent response we hear from our readers is, “You changed the names but you were describing my company.”

There have been hundreds of books written on the subject of lean over the years but The Kaizen Revolution is the one book you’ll want to use to introduce lean to everyone in your organization. It’s been used in hundreds of companies and several colleges as the one source to describe the key concepts of lean, how they work and most importantly everyone’s role in making lean a success.

THE KAIZEN REVOLUTION STORY
It’s all in the presentation. Everyone in your company will want to know how the story ends and unconsciously learn as they go about the benefits of lean. The story of Accurate Clock Co. will bring to life the role lean can play in leading a company to improve quality, customer service while actually reducing costs and time to market.

LEARNING TO FISH
It’s not just a nice story but The Kaizen Revolution provides practical useful information that can start you on your own lean journey. You will learn why traditional improvement strategies don't work, and why Kaizen Events are the ideal tool to achieve breakthrough results. Perhaps most importantly you’ll gain insight as to how to grow your own internal Kaizen Event leaders even if you start with outside consultants.

You will also learn about:

• How to create a checklist of preparatory steps you must take to lead your kaizen team to success.
• Understanding the results your Kaizen Events should deliver, and how to set achievable breakthrough goals.
• How to chose team members for your Kaizen Events, and why asking for volunteers isn’t the best idea.
• How to teach your team to identify and eliminate non-value-added steps, and how doing so will improve your quality, productivity, and delivery.
• Learn what to do each day of the Kaizen Event, and how to stay on track.
• How to sustain the results attained during Kaizen events over the long-term.
• How to deal with employees who fail to embrace the opportunity.

… and much more. The Kaizen Revolution will become your organization’s source book for what is possible with lean and everyone’s role is in making it a success.

ARE YOUR TEAMS READY FOR LEAN?
For further insight in making lean a success at your company or organization, see the section in our other book, The Journey To Teams, to make certain that your teams are capable of fueling the lean engine into the future.

Mark Slattery and Michael Regan