Objectives
Business target: Measurable excellence in process
The basic objective of every company operating with a Lean value creation system should be "best in class" process quality.
The implementation of Lean Management affects a number of crucial process criteria in a positive and measurable way.
Cultural target: The self-learning organization
An essential element of Lean Management is always also the business culture. Without participating employees, who are motivated to create continuous improvements, Lean cannot be implemented.
The rising Lean maturity level implies the progressive development of the organization.
Ideally the continuous improvement process happens as part of a self-learning organization: the cultural target of Lean. Within a self-learning organization improvement is neither voluntary nor random but the consequence of a directed process. Mostly it takes place within four evolutionary steps (see graphic) and requires quite some endurance of the management.
Besides the excellence in process two essential cultural dimensions have, therefore, a major importance to the development of a Lean Organization:
The management excellence and thereby aspects like "directing and leading" as key factors for a competitive company. Starting points for further development in this field are
- Visual transparency
- Leadership on-site
- Process confirmations
- Working with target states
- Development of value stream managers
The behavior excellence which is necessary for any culture of continuous improvement involving all affected employees. Starting points for the implementation are:
- Identifying and eliminating waste
- Developing people on all levels
- Consequent and systematic problemsolving with the PDCA-cycle (Plan/Do/Check/Act)