FT Guide to Lean

11

The technical side of sustaining Lean

Introduction

The potential competitive advantage between a Lean and a pre-Lean organisation are not a 10% difference but can be a 100–1000% advantage in quality, cost, lead time and people development.¹

It is common to double the performance of True North metrics each time (generally up to five passes of value stream mapping and kaizen activity) processes are re-studied.

You may well have heard people saying that Lean is just common sense: the perception that Lean is easy is one of the major root causes of failing to achieve the level of results referenced above. It is relatively straightforward to initially apply the physical tools but implementing the Lean management system in parallel and sustaining ...