5 Mistakes to avoid when implementing lean

When talking about implementing lean, many ideas come into your mind. Some of them are: you want to reduce waste, develop skills in problem-solving, standardize daily processes among others.

The common questions are: When can you start implementing Lean? Do you need to invest in implementing lean because your competition has successfully implemented it? Or you want to create a strong lean culture within your company, with a clear Purpose and Goals?

The best answer to all these questions is to start by identifying “Why” you need to implement lean. There are many drivers, it can be quality, cost, safety, productivity, lead times, or a mix of all of them. Your lean program must be designed to focus on addressing the most critical issues impacting your business.

“A relentless barrage of “why’s” is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo. Use it often.” – Shigeo Shingo

When considering lean, the management must have clear that this methodology focuses on progressive improvements that will be sustainable over time. The lean implementation is not a sprint, it’s more like a marathon.

The true change starts when lean permeates into the company culture merging into one. These results may take months or years, this is mainly because you’re shifting into a different mindset.

Here are 5 mistakes you need to avoid when implementing lean in your company:

Mistake 1: Leadership Team not involved in the process.

When implementing lean in your business, the leadership team must be involved in the end to end process. You can have the best strategic planning but without proper follow-up and support during the process everything is worthless. The rule of thumb is to lead by example.

The Leadership Team needs to provide all the necessary tools and resources for a successful implementation. There is a lot of training, commitment, and dedication to shift your old way of working. Leadership qualities will support this change of mindset.

Mistake 2: Depending on specific people.

During the lean implementation, there are subject matters experts (SMEs) in different positions helping the teams during the transformation process. You will need SMEs and experts during the implementation process. Keep in mind you can’t rely on them forever.

Your goal must be to build a system and stop depending on the specific people or “rock stars”. If you don’t create systems, then you will face many challenges sustaining your lean implementation and culture, when there are internal rotations, promotions, or people changing jobs.

Mistake 3: Separating Culture & Lean.

One of the biggest mistakes is to implement lean without considering the company culture. They should not be separated. Instead, your efforts should be to make them become one.

The lean culture must generate a living system that will be supported by trust, a continuous improvement mindset, leadership, accountability, and innovation without fear of failure. Leaders need to inspire and motivate the teams to engage more and more into it.

Mistake 4: Copy & Paste Implementations.

It’s really valuable to have SMEs and experts that had already implemented lean. Having these lessons learned and best practices doesn’t mean that every implementation will be a copy & paste.

Keep in mind what went wrong or good in previous lean implementations. Don’t let this advantage become a disadvantage in your next lean implementation. Remember that lean is a continuous journey, there is no end.

Mistake 5: Vision without Strategy.

Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve it’s important. At the same time, you need to know where you want to be in the future, but without a clear strategy on how to achieve all these, you will add complexity to your lean implementation.

You should have a clear roadmap in place, with clear steps and responsibles for all the implementation process. The risk, problems, and obstacles should be identified when creating your strategy. This doesn’t mean no challenges will raise up during the process but at least you’ll have the majority of issues already addressed.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”~Benjamin Franklin

Next time you start your lean journey remember that you need to focus on people. If you're part of the leadership team, SMEs, or expert, you got the big responsibility of shaping behaviors and support the different teams in the shift of mindset.

This is not an easy task but isn't impossible. Keep learning and improving!