How many times have we challenged ourselves to “think
outside the box”? The ability to do this is extremely valuable and gets us out of the routine and mundane path we find
ourselves on sometimes. As I was considering this subject that I have talked about many times, I tried to consider ‘what
box’ are we talking about? Many times it is the ‘familiar box’ or sometimes the ‘comfort
box’. We all know how dangerous that can be. And then, while having an in-depth discussion with a client
about building a Lean Enterprise, I discovered a more common box that we American management types find ourselves in – the “BOTTOM LINE
box”. The conversation went something like this: “….well, I feel like we have made progress in implementing
our lean tools, but, I just have not seen the results on the BOTTOM LINE.” Just to put your mind at ease, as a small
business-person, I understand how important the bottom line is – it means survival. But sometimes that means we
artificially use that ‘BOTTOM LINE box’ as a short term excuse for not addressing long term systemic change.
Don't Get Trapped in the BOTTOM LINE
BOX
Let’s talk about what happened at this client – it is
pretty typical. First of all, he entered his journey with good intentions: he had “heard of” lean, felt like it was a
good way to improve, and wanted to get started quickly. “Let's get some of those tools and let’s get to
work.” I want to do 5-S, or at least a couple of them; I want to improve my flow in our process, and I need to reduce my
labor costs. Lean can do that, right? Right! What did the client do wrong? – all of these improvements
worked. His focus was directly and/or indirectly on one thing – the BOTTOM LINE. What did TAG do wrong
– nothing…but, we could have helped our client to better understand fully, on the front end: 1) you have to take the time to learn
and understand a little about the “LEAN” philosophy, not just ‘have heard of it’, before you begin a transformation; 2)
you will see results in the work environment before you see results on the bottom line – it takes persistence and patience; and, maybe most
importantly, 3) developing a ‘Lean Enterprise’ is as much or more about improving the ‘carpenters’ as it is about using
‘new tools’. The problem – none of these things show up in large numbers on the BOTTOM LINE after the first
5-S event; or, sometimes, the tenth.
What is the Return on
Investment?
But, after a lot of hard work and a sizable amount of money, what
did show up for this client’s efforts:
-
Improved work environment: they do not have a perfectly
5-S’d system but it looks a whole lot better than it ever has – and the people are ‘learning’ to appreciate it.
- Better flow: a rearranged plant has cut down walking distances, improved ease of access (repeated
pick-up and set-downs to get to something), and improved material presentation.
- Improved shipment organization and visibility: they can actually see the shipping dock now.
- Reduced overtime.
- Lower expedited freight costs.
- Less scrap and rework from handling damage.
- Lower inventory requirements.
- Quicker reaction times: on-time deliveries - better customer response.
And, several more significant improvements.
Now, a lot of this improvement has not shown up on the BOTTOM LINE
- yet. So, is LEAN worth the effort for this client?
If you get outside the BOTTOM LINE box, would you say these are
significant improvements? If they never showed up on the BOTTOM LINE would you call these improvements worthwhile?
The Hidden Values and the Missing
Link
We have come to call these the “Hidden Values of
Lean”. And, you will eventually see some significant BOTTOM LINE results. But, the point is, our
client is questioning his efforts because of the BOTTOM LINE BOX in which we all have captured ourselves. These “Hidden
Values”, if sustained, will result in a transformed company. The eventual BOTTOM LINE results will be substantial and
critical in a world market environment.
However, the missing link in this experience is the
‘learning and understanding’ that needs to happen for a ‘lean transformation’ to truly take place.
This is the missing link to the systemic changes that we desire when we talk about changing the way we do work (business).
We get much more involved with the hammer (the tools of lean) and how fast will it work, than we do with the carpenter (the total workforce
– including the corner office) and improving their understanding of the work and how it is done.
The Non-Bottom Line:
Don’t get trapped
in the BOTTOM LINE BOX
Lean implementation takes
patience and persistence
The ‘Hidden Values
of Lean’ are truly significant
The ‘Role of the
Carpenter’ is more important than the hammer
