Lean Management Conclusions
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The major benefits of lean management are the reduction of efforts, costs, defects, and process times through waste elimination. Investments in lean management achieved productivity gains of around 25%, wastage reductions by 90%, shrinking of floor spaces by 50%, and cutting down of travel distances by 75%. Higher, revenues, enhanced employee motivations, and larger customer bases were the direct result. Low productivity, rampant wages, high organizational expense, prolonged cycle times, dissatisfied customers, and disenchanted employees became things of past.
Still TPM, lean management, Kaizen, Six Sigma, all of them based on the same techniques and principles had several limitations. Initial funding of employee training in lean management is substantially larger and overspendings had been the norm. Kaizen initiatives were only approximations, instead of comprehensive time study data by qualified industrial engineers. Analyses are based on snapshot views of prevailing situations and overall continuity of events are usually lacking. Changes in equipment or other resources on a larger scale for reduction of wastes and improvement in performances generally led to frustrations, alienation, and inefficiency. Real challenge in the implementation of lean management is long-term sustenance, as well as simultaneous execution on all divisions and sectors at right paces.
The roles of balanced scorecards and strategic planning are being applied increasingly in carrying out lean management techniques. They indicate past performances of business processes and projects. At the same time, they also forecast consequences of various actions in future project approaches. The performance levels are transposed into real-time performance metrics, making balanced scorecards and strategic planning an integral part of lean principles. The feedback from balance scorecards reach all the stakeholders of the company, such as management, employees, customers, vendors, and shareholders. Problem areas are identified and rectification measures are undertaken on a continuous basis for long-term sustenance of lean management programs.
