As is the case with any lean implementation in a traditional environment, culture change is the most difficult obstacle to success. A company can hire consultants, develop work teams, and begin lean initiatives, but if it only talks the talk, the initiative soon becomes just talk.

Why do we do lean? We often get so focused on making improvements that we forget why we are making improvements. It becomes a “make an improvement for improvement’s sake” mentality. We shouldn’t forget the guiding principles of our actions, meeting customer needs (internal, external, shareholders, and community) and respect for people. The improvements should be following the rules in use:

1. Highly-defined activities.
2. Clear and binary customer/supplier connections.
3. Simple and direct flowpaths.
4. Continuous improvement using the scientific method.

Meeting customer needs Our motivation should always be to meet a customer’s expectation. At one time, there was a definition of quality that can be summarized as make exactly what the customer wants. Why should I make a watch that is water-resistant to depths of 300 feet, when my target customer will never use the watch in more than a sink full of dishes? How much extra is that customer willing to pay for a feature they don’t see as value-added?

Seeing the value to our end-use customer and shareholders has never been difficult.

 …