Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Flanders
Greetings,
Lean manufacturing is good stuff, but often badly applied. As Michael said, above, empowering employees is the weak spot. Here is my view on why that is:
Managers in the US tend to embrace the parts they understand the best...which is to say obsessive cleaning, increased monitoring and the jargon of lean. The ideas are fit into a northern European work ethic and a top-down, do-as-you're-told mentality. The idea of breaking down territories, open communication, engaged teams suggesting ideas for continuous improvement and the spirit of real teamwork is lost on them. What we're left with is clunky old fashioned time and motion studies laid on top of the same American corporate philosophy.
Also, lean's waste elimination can be counter-productive in hard times. I savaged a skid of paper last year that the lean guys were getting rid of. They tossed thousands of $ worth of paper because it wasn't lean. Now we could use that paper. Lean can also become a cult of true believers, and engender favoritism by selective training. I'm curious, David, about your thoughts.
There is an old saying for getting through hard times. Maybe Lean could find a way to incorporate it.
"Use it up. Wear it out. Make do. Do Without"
thanks,
mf.
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Your comment on the lean guys that tossed paper is a double edged sword. Saving paper is at times good but that isn't the core practicality of the situation. Lean dictates what is waste shouldn't be there and should be either discarded or be used someplace with potential value. You shouldn't be asking "Why are we throwing away the paper?" but be asking "Why did we buy and save that paper?" Or better yet: "Why do we even have inventory?"
Classic example. The print company I work for has a skid at the top of its stock room of a full parent sheet of paper that isn't even manufactured anymore. The company keeps it. Why? Because it was donated to us from a customer. So a few questions come to mind:
Why should we keep something that has no value added? It has none because it isn't getting used. It has not moved in about 4 years. It is taken up inventory space and just collecting dust. No value added means waste in terms of lean.
But on the other hand, we haven't looked at the core reason. Why didn't it get used? Why wasn't there a timeframe to get rid of it if it wasn't going to be used? Or better yet
WHY is there inventory anyway? Why can't we, an offset printer, develop a system with no inventory whatsoever? JIT is a great tool, why can't we use it?
Your example of the lean guys is in fact counterproductive and their method of waste is a bit construed. But not in terms of what you are implying. Their mentality of using an inventory can easily turn into save all the paper that is left over. If you are like most printers, you use different paper all the time. There isn't one specific set unless your into commodity. Creation of a JIT helps to lessen that inventory, so the "root" problem is solved: Reduction of paper stored in inventory.
A bigger question comes to mind, where was that paper originally from? What was the purpose of storing it? So many questions need to be addressed with this in order to understand the entire perspective of the situation.
I disagree with your comment about selective training. Lean isn't "do this concept and this concept and your done", lean is a mindset and a cultural change that anyone can be apart of if they open their mind to the culture of lean. The concepts of 5S, kanban, poke yoke and all the other tag lines are there to highlight the most common ways to help reduce waste. Toyota didn't have these taglines when they were developing TPS, they created a culture within the company that wished to continuously improve the bottom line. In solving the core problems, all the other issues that followed it ceased to be.
"Use it up. Wear it out. Make do. Do Without"
2nd part is good. Make do with what you have and insure you can do without certain things that you might be comfortable with. 1st part, eh not so much. Wear it out to me means break stuff, and lean has a clear line on that which is the "Total Productive Maintenance" concepts.
Or I could of just misinterpreted the whole saying. I need some more coffee......
