Lean Management: introduction

Today, Lean Management is well-known and present in many sectors of activity. The definitions are not always identical, but a common core emerges. We’re going to answer a number of questions here, from the simplest to the most unexpected. After reading this article, you will be able to answer questions such as ‘What is Lean Management? or ’What is the difference between Lean Management and Lean Manufacturing?
Enough dithering, what is Lean management?

Lean is defined as an organisational logic and management system designed to create value for customers. Customers can be internal or external, service or product. Lean management offers many benefits, thanks to a wide range of tools. Waste is eliminated, allowing customers to benefit from better quality, shorter lead times and increased production capacity. In general, Lean Management improves the customer experience.

The origins of Lean

The term ‘Lean’ was first proposed by James Womack and Daniel Jones (MIT) in 1980, following a comparative study of Japanese automotive industrial performance with that of the United States and Europe. We were not yet at the stage of implementing Lean Management, but of observing it.

The production system set up by TOYOTA in Japan appeared to be more efficient than any other industrial system. From the 90s onwards, this production system became the benchmark. Today, a large number of companies have defined their own system, but each time, it is a rewriting of the Toyota model.

Lean objectives

Lean has 3 objectives:

Focus on customer expectations and the value to be created to satisfy them.
Improve your company’s performance by eliminating ‘waste’ in your processes.
Take account of employees’ needs by increasing fluidity, flexibility and agility.

Initially, Lean was applied to industrial production, but it quickly spread beyond this area to cover all production support functions (methods, stock management, quality, maintenance), the development and industrialisation of new products, purchasing, etc. But what is the difference between Lean Management and Lean Manufacturing?

It would seem that the difference between Lean Manufacturing and Lean Management is a nuance. Lean Manufacturing is Lean Management applied to industrial production. Today, Lean Management also covers services and all support functions such as HR, finance, general services and commercial functions (sales, sales reps, call centres, etc.).

Implementing Lean Management

Lean Management is a pragmatic and simple approach. In fact, it’s probably because of its subtlety that it’s difficult to understand its deeper meaning and all its inner workings. Companies are often mainly interested in ready-to-use lean tools such as 5S, flow analysis, SMED, etc.

In other cases, resistance to change on the ground is harder to overcome. The feeling of pressure takes precedence over the actual improvement of activities. The integration of Lean management must therefore be based on the goodwill of managers. Lean is therefore the first building block for managers. They need to understand the benefits before you start your Lean Management project.

Where does Lean Management fit in?

A company operates by implementing and improving a set of processes that enable it to obtain a result, an output, through a series of transformations such as :

Design process -> that transforms an idea into a marketable product or service,

Purchasing process -> that transforms a need into a product,

Manufacturing process -> which transforms a raw material into a finished product, etc.

Everything is a process. This is also true in support or tertiary activities, which transform data into information, information into decisions and so on.

A project is the process of transforming an idea or a need into a result. With Lean Management playing an active role in improving processes, positive results are guaranteed.

Contrary to what people may say, Lean Management is not a danger to employees; it is there to make their work easier.

Lean for managers: how can you rely on your management teams?

When implementing a Lean approach, the manager must adopt the posture of a leader who motivates and supports his employees. They need to learn how to help people develop their skills. They must also solve their day-to-day problems independently. This requires a change in mentality and behaviour in the managerial functions.

It’s important to remember that the person creating the added value is the priority.

Lean improvements are largely driven by operators, who develop a problem-solving culture. It is important to support them so that they become more proactive and autonomous. These transformations must be decided, led and supported by the hierarchy with the following roles:

Field team: Taking an active role on site/ Managing quality/ Reporting waste/ Respecting processes and standards

Managers: Steering performance with teams and ensuring compliance with standards/ Leading problem-solving methods/ Setting the standard for continuous improvement

Management: Identify needs for improvement vs. strategy/Ask for new projects/Delegate resources/Validate proposed solutions/Encourage and challenge results.

Far from being a lever for redundancy plans, Lean management is a way of bringing out the good people who could become leaders. Giving meaning and autonomy is an ongoing challenge that helps teams to develop their skills.

Secondly, the Lean Management method is implemented with the entire workforce. Buy-in and confidence in the objective are essential conditions for the success of a Lean approach.

What are the results of Lean Management?

Thanks to several years’ experience in the deployment of Lean initiatives, particularly within CAC40 groups, we can attest to the impact that our solutions can have on your Lean approach. There’s nothing like combining new IoT tools with traditional principles to make this approach part of your corporate culture.

To remain Lean, we have developed simple but automated tools for non-value-added tasks. We have taken into account the technical and human constraints in the field.

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