ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: The Journey to “True Lean”
David Marshall
Despite the abundance of lean resources, many organizations struggle to achieve successful and sustainable lean transformation. An estimated 70 percent of all organizations pursuing lean transformation with conventional methods fail to sustain improvements.
Rich Alloo, a Toyota executive in residence at the University of Kentucky, shared thoughts on the challenge of sustaining lean transformation. “In general, organizations that seek to improve their operating performance through adopting lean practices can achieve significant progress by implementing the tools of lean in their operations,” Alloo said.
“The challenge, therefore, is not whether organizations can make improvement in their operations by adopting lean tools, but whether they can sustain those improvements and, importantly, continuously improve upon their improvements,” Alloo said. “This challenge is met in Toyota by the Toyota Production System, which has its foundation in a single systematic problem-solving process that is adopted by all members of the organization. It has become the culture of Toyota and is reinforced in all Toyota members from the time they enter the company.
“True lean (a term coined and trademarked by the University of Kentucky Lean Systems Program) requires that both the development of the one system, one voice and the tools/practices occur together,” said Alloo. “Creating one system, one voice requires active involvement of the organization's leadership to create the culture and to reinforce the thinking and behaviors of the organization's members through adjustment of human resources practices. When this happens, an organization can reach the true lean destination. True lean is achieved when the work group, by themselves, is engaged in systematic problem solving on the work that they do when, and only when, the culture of the organization is the reason that it is happening.”
To advance knowledge of lean longevity, researchers at the University of Kentucky are conducting a study on the factors that influence successful and sustainable lean transformation. If your organization is planning, pursuing, and/or sustaining a lean transformation journey, you are invited to participate in an important survey regarding the lean transformation initiatives in your organization. You do not need to be a lean expert to complete the survey. Please forward this article/invitation to other members of your organization.
As an incentive, all respondents who complete the survey by Sept. 1, 2011, will be entered in a drawing for a full-tuition scholarship (excluding travel and living expenses) in the three-week lean systems certification course at the University of Kentucky (a $7,500 value). All respondents who complete the survey by Sept. 15, 2011, will be entered in a drawing (five winners) to select a book from a list of popular lean titles. All participants will receive a summary of the survey results at the completion of the study.
Your participation is crucial to the success of this research. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participants’ privacy and the confidentiality of responses will be strictly preserved. Unless you choose to provide your contact information for the drawings, all responses to the survey will be anonymous. No data will be linked to participants or their organizations in any published materials. Thank you in advance for your assistance with this project. We look forward to receiving your response.
David Marshall is a doctoral candidate, supply chain management, University of Kentucky. Prior to entering academia, he was employed by Ford Motor Company.
