Lean Empowerment and Respect for People

Chapter 2 Lessons Learned from Lean Production

DOI: 10.4324/9781032644134-4

Most improvement offices or Lean consultants have attempted at least one of the following methods from the Lean Production System:

• Discontinuous Improvement Projects (A3s, PDCAs, Kaizen Events, etc.)
• Quality Control (QC) Circles
• Daily Management (Kata, Huddles, 5S, etc.)

Let me be clear – each method listed above is either a direct teaching of Lean or an adaptation of its principles. And it is true that each method can add value, but only in a system that sustains the outcomes. We must analyze each one to better understand which elements are intrinsic to Lean or situational add-ons that arose in a specific context. The latter should not be accepted as universally applicable, ...