Lean's new look (using lean as a growth strategy)

Lean’s new look (using lean as a growth strategy)

Bowers M.R., Gilbert K.C., Miller A.G., Srinivasan M.M. APICS – The Performance Advantage, September 2007, Vol. 17 No. 8, Start page: 30, No. of pages: 4

Purpose – to argue that lean should be seen as a growth strategy rather than a cost reduction exercise. Design/methodology/approach – sees lean as a growth strategy improving the productivity of existing resources, contends that most organizational leaders lose track of their goals when implementing lean, points out that productivity gains can be used to undertake additional work rather than reduce head-count, and outlines a military equipment maintenance organization example to illustrate why spare capacity, generated by productivity improvements and used to accommodate previously out-sourced maintenance work, provided greater financial returns than staff reduction. Offers seven guidelines for implementing lean as a growth strategy, recommending focusing on the big picture, expressing goals in terms of throughput enhancement, exploiting constraints that limit throughput, concentrating on value-add activities, eliminating organizational barriers to growth,facilitating workforce creativity, and not wasting effort and resources on the improvement of non-bottleneck activities.Originality/value – links lean directly to profit growth rather than indirectly through cost reduction.ISSN: 1056-0017Reference: 36BA464

Keywords: Business development, Corporate strategy, Financial performance, Lean production