Lean for Leadership C N Mohan

Practice Head – Lean & Kanban, SolutionsIQ India

What is Lean?

Lean = Tools which create efficiencies and standardize the processes.

Actual Lean Implementations = Lean Tools + Lean Thinking

20%

80%

Lean Tools

Lean Thinking

1

Where should be the focus??

Focus should be on Lean Management

• A bridge between the Lean Tools and Lean Thinking

2

What is Lean Thinking?

Lean Thinking = Set of Leadership Behaviors + Structures

Lean Thinking helps sustainment of Lean Implementation through a

“Culture of Leadership”.

( )

3

Who is a Leader? Le

ader

Views self-development and training others

as the only possible path

strives for continuous improvement in every aspect of the business

views the company as a total system which grows through daily improvement or it

deteriorates

Requires that everyone at all levels of organization possesses deep knowledge about processes and are able to sense

change and respond appropriately

4

What are Leadership Behaviors?

Respect for People

Continuous Improvement

Gemba Walks

Hoshin-Kanri

5

What are Leadership Structures??

For Enterprise-wide Lean implementation to succeed we need Leaders at following levels

Tactical Level (Managers, Team Leads)

6

Focus Areas for each level

Organizational Level

Primary Contribution

Tasks Secondary Contributions

Tasks

Strategic (CEO, Sr. VPs)

Governance – Steering and Oversight

Support Cross-boundary perspective

Measure adherence to post-project processes

Monitor intersection measures through Gemba Walks

Functional (VPs, Directors)

Accountability Meet project commitments & Manage intersection performance

Disciplined adherence & commitments to processes post-project

Collaborate in process management & Gemba walks

Tactical (Managers, Team Leads)

Tactical Lean Management System

Disciplined adherence & Gemba Walks

Associate engagement and Continuous Improvement

Teach, Practice Root Cause Problem Solving

7

What Leaders do?

Leaders influence and reinforce Behaviors and Practices within the Organizations there by creating a CULTURE.

Q:What is Culture?

A: The Way we do things here

Note: Culture evolves slowly, changing them is even slower!

8

How does Culture evolve?

Leaders

Behaviours

Culture

Value to Customer

Influence

Drives

Generate

Based on Needs

9

How to germinate Culture?

Lean Management

Principles

Value Streams

Process which crosses many functional

boundaries to aid Flow of Value

Leaders Identify and eliminate

interruptions impeding the Flow of Value

CO

NSI

STS

OF

10

How to make it @ Strategic Level

System Level Intervention for Lean Governance

Senior Executive governance process

Lean Steering and Oversight (LSO) group

Project Resource and

Accountability (PR&A) panel

Accountability and Exception Management

Structures

11

How to make it @ Functional Level

Meet Commitments to Projects and Measure of Process Performance consisting of • Quality

o Refers to defects, errors, rework, 1st time quality and customer satisfaction

• Delivery o Refers to total cycle time from beginning to end of the

process across departments

• Costs o Refers to process time or touch time both within

departments or at between department handoffs.

12

How to make it @ Tactical Level

A closed loop system focused on process to drive improvement

Process Focus

Standardized Processes

Visual Controls

Daily Accountability

13

What Lean demands from Leaders?

High level of attention to reinforce set of behaviors that replace our habits

Being sensitive to abnormalities from specified operating conditions

To look at problems as valuable nuggets of information to be mined for clues to make improvements

14

What Lean demands from Leaders?

3-step approach

Provides templates and practices for leaders to enable to learn, look for & ask about and reinforce behaviors that sustain gains!

Go to the place of Action

Look at the process where the action takes place

Talk to people who are using the process to perform those actions

15

What should Leaders do?

Lead

ers

Lead

Innovate

Solve

Collaborate

Win

16

What Leaders must be Looking for?

Backsliding

Maneuvering

Going through the Motions of Implementation

Conditions that appear to be in Steady state

Project and Workshop != Continuous Improvement

Erosion of Process

Value Stream != method for process improvement

17

What Leaders must Remember?

"People don't deliberately come to work to do a bad job - it's broken processes that prevent

people from maximizing their talent and the business from maximizing efficiency and

optimizing customer experience"

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Thank You