Introduction to Lean Management
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Lean management is maximization of customer value by reducing all work wastes. Lean management addresses the five critical problems in processes of all types of organizations. These five are low productivity, prolonged cycle time, costly organization, rampant wastage, and dissatisfied customers and employees. The major stakeholders are customers, employees, and organization. Balanced scorecard and strategic planning are employed to control and address the learning and growth perspective, the business perspective, the financial perspective, and the customer perspective comprehensively. Certain alternatives to lean management are Six Sigma, Fordism, Scientific Management or Taylorism, and Theory of Constraints.
The identification and elimination of waste is achieved through the seven mudas or wastes in Japanese language. They are flaws, motion, over processing, waiting, transportation, inventory, and over production. The key success factors of lean management are plan, goal, involvement, approach, workers, metric system, and communication. The five major organizations that had benefited by lean management are Toyota Motor Company, eflexgroup.com, CIGNA Group, Bechtel Corporation, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The crucial techniques adopted in lean management are total productive maintenance, total quality management, and just in time techniques. Lean management is the answer to crucial questions, such as the major aim of lean management, Kaizen and its significance, the tangible and measurable benefits and time taken to achieve them, handling of job cuts or disillusion among employees, and integration of lean management with Six Sigma.
Introduction to Lean Management
Lean management has been developed with the intention of reducing process wastes and maximizing the value of the product or the service to the customer. This is achieved through unique techniques like flow charts, total productive maintenance, just in time techniques, workplace redesigning techniques, and total quality management. The chief aim of eliminating wastes in lean management results in higher revenues, enhanced customer base, and improved levels of employee motivation. When lean management is introduced and implemented in any organization, the important problems addressed are low productivity, prolonged cycle times, control of organizational expenses, rampant wastage, and dissatisfied customers and employees.
Low productivity is improved and yields are increased through lean management. Time handling is integral to successful resolution of problems and shorter cycle times are replaced by prolonged cycle times. Wastages of time, manpower, resources and costs are managed effectively, allowing the organization to have better room for improvement. The lean management follows the principle of ‘WOCAS’ or what our customers are saying. This leads to more and more satisfied customers. Further, the regular meetings, discussions, and interactions with the employees keep them motivated, removing dissatisfaction from their work environments.
Since the major stakeholders of lean management are customers, the old cliché principle that customer is always right is rigorously followed. They are presented with a feeling that they are valued above anything else. Customer issues and concerns are addressed on a priority basis, without giving false promises. There is continuous striving for providing value added services to them. The next important stakeholders are the rank and file workforce. Happy employees are the driving force of any organization. When they are given definite directions and compensated properly, their empowerment would boost the operations of the organizations. The last stakeholders of a company are the business owners or shareholders, the board members, and the CEO. They are the ones who implement the lean management and they should do that in balanced, unbiased fashion.
