Mark Graban

The True Definition of Lean
July 19, 2007

Welcome to my new blog here at MBTmag.com.  I have been blogging since early 2005 at www.leanblog.org, where I write about Lean and the Toyota Production System in terms of manufacturing and healthcare, primarily.  I believe strongly that, at the right conceptual level, “Lean is Lean,” regardless of your industry.  While healthcare folks have little choice but to learn Lean from the manufacturing world, I often recommend that my friends in manufacturing would do well to learn from some of the cutting edge Lean journeys on the healthcare side.  In particular, you can benefit from studying the leadership and “respect for people” aspects of Lean, as being applied in some hospitals today.

In this blog, I will be writing about Lean Manufacturing, but again, “Lean is Lean.”   At what level of definition is this true?

For one, look at Toyota’s “house” definition of Lean (this diagram, shown at EMSstrategies.com).  Notice there is nothing said there about building cars.  For example, the concept of “respect for people” is something that can be universally applied.  This is shown as “highly motivated people” in that diagram, as the “center” of TPS.  Respect for people is often described as a “pillar” of TPS.  Where the pillars used to be described as “Just In Time” and “Jidoka” (built-in quality), the Toyota leaders now talk about the pillars being “continuous improvement” and “respect for people.”  Again, these aren’t concepts specific to any one industry.  Remember, Toyota originally built weaving looms, not cars!

Other high-level definitions of Lean include the 5 principles of “Lean Thinking” (the book by Womack and Jones) and the 14 principles of “The Toyota Way.”  I’d argue that you are better off learning and thinking about these general principles before you start learning about specific Lean tools, such as kanban or 5S.  This requires the ability to think through it yourself, rather than just copying Toyota or a peer company of yours.

I often see email traffic and message board postings looking for consultants or employees with very industry-specific Lean experience.  Most of this comes from the “we are different” mentality that everybody has.  You know, that’s true.  Everybody IS different.  That doesn’t mean the Lean or TPS model is terribly different across industries.  Do you really need to hire someone with “experience implementing Lean in a mid-sized Southeast poultry producing plant?”  When we’re overly specific, it sounds like we’re looking to copy what a mirror-image company did with Lean rather than thinking through Lean ourselves. 

How would things work if, instead, you hired a good consultant (or employee) who had successfully implemented Lean in a number of different industries, but had never set foot in a poultry plant?   That person would be better off teaching basic and general Lean concepts, along with the Lean management system.  Then, work together to figure out how to implement those concepts in a way that solves your business problems, in a way that supports your customers, employees, and suppliers. 

It might be more work that way, but you’ll be better off for it and your Lean efforts are more likely to be successful.

Posted by Mark Graban on July 19, 2007 | Comments (0)