Lean Misconceptions

By: Jim Womack

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) brought the heavy hitters of competitiveness to Toronto for its annual conference. With North American manufacturers hoping for a rebound as Asian producers struggle with rising costs, AME and its associated organizations (Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, and the Toronto chapter of SME, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers) are promoting renewed focus on productivity and effectiveness as a way to survive and — dare we say it? — thrive in the coming new era.

At an introductory reception hosted by the Ontario government, the keynote presenter was Massachusetts-based Jim Womack, the former MIT researcher now known as the founder of the Lean movement. An operating philosophy that stresses listening to the customer, tight collaboration between management and production staff, eliminating waste and boosting production flow, Lean is often heralded as manufacturers’ best hope for cutting costs and regaining their innovative edge.

CME president Jayson Meyers introduced Womack as “someone who has changed the world” by launching the Lean revolution. Womack, who developed his understanding of Lean from production methods at Toyota automotive plants, modestly deflected such accolades: “All I have done is repackage stolen goods,” he said. “I just tell stories.” (His books include The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, Lean Thinking, Lean Solutions, and most recently, Gemba Walks.)

Womack noted that this fall marks the 25th anniversary of the movement, which he says is still gaining ground (in fact, many Asian producers are now embracing Lean production methods in an attempt to get their costs under control).

But Lean has proven a difficult process to master — not a quick fix, but a long, complex business-culture-changing journey. The Lean movement has also suffered from a number of “misconceptions,” Womack said. “I’m surprised we’ve made as much progress as we have, with so much misunderstanding of what we [the leading Lean gurus] have been saying.”

Misconception No. 1: “People heard that Lean is a cost-cutting exercise,” Womack said. In reality, the production methods Womack’s MIT team studied were geared to producing more output, with less waste — a key Lean concept that includes unnecessary time, space, operating costs, capital expenditures, and worker injuries. “People think it’s a headcount reduction system,” he complained. “People heard the less, but they didn’t hear the more.”

Misconception No. 2: When Womack and two co-authors produced The Machine that Changed the World, about the Toyota Production System, ”People thought it was a book about factories,” he said. In fact, he noted, the groundbreaking 1990 book included prominent chapters on managing customers, how to listen to your market, and running your entire enterprise on Lean principles. To understand that Lean is not just about production, he said, “You have to read the other four-fifths of the book.”

Misconception 3: “Most people think Lean is a within-the-walls activity to fix your company,” Womack said. But Lean works best when supply-chain partners team up to squeeze out inefficiencies and maximize flow. “It is impossible for you to get very far when the people in your value stream don’t get any better,” he said.

Misconception 4: “Lean is an improvement process production people can do — management doesn’t have to do anything. Management can ‘check the box’ and move on.” Womack said Lean requires continual co-operation at all levels, with upper management building two-way communications and trust with staff, restructuring to support decision-making at lower levels, shepherding investment in Lean projects, and generally championing Lean initiatives. Most Lean commentators have noted that management loses interest in these projects well before the rest of the staff.

In the long term, Lean will continue to thrive, he said. He noted it is spreading into health care and government, two institutions that desperately need to tighten their efforts and control costs, and he said Lean will always be needed in business.

“I am a modest optimist. I think people and societies learn more slowly than they should,” he said. In the long-run battle for competitiveness, he said, the winners will be those organizations that “get better faster than everyone else.”

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7013/8600/8457/2013-12.pdf

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