The Learning Curve To Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is successful. However like anything in life, there is a learning curve to it. Lean manufacturing is something that you need to really understand and stay committed to in order to have a difference with the program.For lean manufacturing to work you need to follow some of these steps and programs.

Communication
For lean manufacturing to work you have to have strong communication between all of the departments and individuals that are involved with it. Management needs to be involved with the implementation and then they need to be with every step of the process to keep it working correctly. You cannot just implement it and then hope it works. You have to be actively involved in the program and working to keep it going. The more you are involved and communicate, the easier it will be to have lean manufacturing work.

Standard Procedure
With lean manufacturing you need to make it part of the standard procedure for the company. People may be wondering how it will fit into their regular job duties so you need to organize it correctly in order for them to understand their roles with it. Lean is a process that is not a temporary solution. It is a process that is standard now and it is easy to train your new employees on it since they do not know a difference. Your other employees may put up resistance to it and could be harder for you to train. Patience is key to helping them grasp the concept of lean and how they play a part in it. To make it part of their job you can easily adjust it by showing your employees a good example in making it part of your daily job routines.

Offer Opportunities
One of the things that employees may see with lean is that it cuts out so many processes that their job is not as defined as is once was. They may think that there are no longer opportunities to grow because there are too many automated processes. You need to show them that there are still areas to grow with the company and to show them that they can move forward with their careers despite the lack of jobs that the lean manufacturing program has taken over. Room for growth keeps them motivated and allows them to still believe in the program.

Use the Right Tools
With lean you have to offer the right type of lean tools that help your employees to maximize their potential. Your staff needs to have a program that makes their job easier, not harder. Using the right implementation and tools of lean you can cut down on the amount of time they end up wasting moving around from place to place and other things. Lean tools are vital to help you keep your staff engaged but to get them to understand the benefits of introducing a strong lean program.

Training
Lean is something that you have to keep working on all the time. Ongoing training is something that you really have to work on to keep your staff involved in it. If you have lean consultants, bring them back to come in for ongoing training. This gives you a great opportunity to teach new lean tools and skills to your employees. They need to have training to help them really understand how to move forward with the programs. Bringing leaders that have the skills with lean will make a big difference for your organization with the skills that you need to give your employees the understanding of how to think lean and to move toward a lean environment.