PA Consulting Group transforms the performance of organisations. Clients call on our independent, employee-owned, global firm when they want an innovative solution, a highly responsive approach, and delivery of hard results.
Whilst the application of Lean principles appears simple, many organisations are failing to realise the potential benefits of their Lean implementation in the long term. Too often, the focus is on driving isolated performance improvement into one process or at one site. While this will create islands of excellence, it will ultimately fail to deliver benefit through and across the entire value chain.
And this approach does not lead to sustainability; Lean requires a culture shift, a change in the way the business thinks and approaches its operations - driven from the top, delivered through empowered people.
At PA, we know how you can realise the benefits quickly and ensure the results are sustainable. Our insights, gleaned from those organisations that have been successful at Lean, typically follow the following set of principles:
Lean is more than just a set of tools and techniques
Too often, Lean is viewed as a series of tools and techniques that can be simply implemented within part of the business to deliver rapid or near-term performance improvement. While the focused implementation of tools and techniques is a fundamental part of a successful Lean implementation, the challenge is to identify which tools and techniques to apply and when.
We have found that it is critical to be selective about which tools to implement as not all Lean tools and techniques will have an equivalent level of impact on a given organisation. To realise the true potential of Lean, a more complex set of factors needs to be considered.
‘Good enough’ is not acceptable – the top team must lead the quest to understand process performance
Organisational implementation of Lean requires the leadership team to have a ruthless passion for understanding process performance. It is not enough for business leaders to kick-start an improvement programme and to sit back and wait for the benefits to come rolling in. They must be visible and hands-on to provide a clear and ongoing focus, ensuring that activity is directed in the most appropriate place and that the resources required are available.
Organisational buy-in will make or break the programme
The implementation of a new improvement philosophy can be extremely traumatic and, if done badly, highly demotivating. Often, the effort required for real long-term success stretches the resources and capability of the organisation. This makes organisation buy-in critical to success.
Organisational buy-in includes not only clear links to business strategy and continuous improvement, but also clear individual performance expectations, and with rewards linked to Lean behaviours.
Empowerment and discipline need to go hand-in-hand
Empowerment is a key element of any Lean implementation but it cannot be a soft approach.
The rigorous application and enforcement of the right systems, processes, controls and measures are necessary for long-term success. Inappropriate systems, controls and measures will reduce the benefits of Lean implementation and, if wrongly applied, drive the opposite behaviour.
'Would my customer pay for this?' should be everyone’s guiding principle
It is rare for an organisation to already have a culture conducive to Lean. An ongoing drive for efficiency usually takes precedence over effectiveness; ineffective processes and command and control are counter to the Lean approach of focusing on customer value. They also encourage organisations to focus on aggregated results rather than a value-providing process in its entirety.
The sometimes long and difficult process of cultural change is an inevitable requirement for a successful Lean implementation.
Our industry-experienced consultants combine Lean expertise, sector knowledge and change management to successfully deliver sustainable results through your people.
For further information about PA's distinctive approach to Lean please e-mail us at:
lean@paconsulting.com
