Most manufacturing companies have spent considerable time and effort on the lean journey. Some even have managed to achieve substancial savings. Yet, few organizations can boast a truly lean business. Some aspects of the company, maybe. Some of the time, maybe. But when it comes to sustainable and continued improvement, continually reduced lead times throughout the supply chain, lean product development and engineering, I am not sure that any companies can boast that they have become truly lean.
The problem is that lean manufacturing is a method for doing business. Yet, it cannot be fully adopted without complete rethinking of the organization’s market, accounting practices, risk management, business purpose, facilities and equipment. It cannot be done without complete retraining of the manaagement team (and there are quite a few current managers that frankly will never be able to be managers within lean paradigm) and retraining of the workforce. For most organizations it is a matter of breaking every bit of the organization and organizational culture.
The problem is that it is simply not worth it. Why break a business that is sustaining itself in a short term, if at best we only might be able to build a better one?
The solution is brilliant in its simplicity. Don’t. Don’t break what works. Instead, each organization must pull its best, brightest and most commited to change out of their existing business setting and send them off to go start something new. They can start a new business, with the new culture, with new ideas, with new business model and they can grow it in to a lean business, if they can just stay from under the wings of the management and the overhead allocations of the existing one. And in time, should they prove successful, they can continue hiring away from the parent company, until parent company is no more.
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