Guide
Practical Lean guide
Strategy and approach
8 of 8 articles
When everyone is in charge of everything, nobody is responsible
"We all do that together" sounds like team spirit and ends in tasks left undone. Why shared responsibility is not accountability, and how you change that.
The first workshop with an external facilitator: what you may expect
The first day with someone from outside decides between trust and scepticism in the plant. What a good first workshop delivers, what it deliberately does not, and how to tell by the evening.
Ten projects at once is not a strategy
When everything runs at once, nothing gets finished. I show how to sort projects honestly, cut visibly and still keep the people who got involved.
How mature is your plant really? An honest self-test
Every plant manager has a picture of how good their plant is. It is rarely accurate. A maturity check replaces gut feeling with a shared, verifiable assessment of where you stand.
Why your lean programme quietly died, and how to bring it back to life
The posters are still up, the boards are empty, the lean department is fighting alone. I show where lean programmes really fail and how to restart honestly.
Consultant, interim or do it yourself? An honest decision guide
The lean manager has gone, plant management is overloaded, the programme is stalling. A consultant delivers a concept. An interim mandate delivers implementation. When each one fits.
From annual goal to shift, without losing anything along the way
The strategy sits on a slide in January and is forgotten by March. Hoshin kanri makes sure that a few goals carry the whole year, even without a staff department.
The first 90 days after the audit decide everything
The audit report has arrived, the team is waiting to see what happens. What has to happen in the first 90 days so that findings turn into change that can be seen in the hall and in the office.