Summary of the meaning of the 14 Lean management principles
| Section | Principle | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I – Long-term philosophy | 1 – Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy even at the expense of short-term financial goals | Align the entire organisation and grow towards a bigger goal than making a profit. Be responsible as the organisation generates value for society, customers and the economy |
| II – The right process will produce the right results | 2 – Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface | Processes should be re-designed to accomplish value- added, continuous flow, while reducing the idle time to zero |
| 3 – Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction | Only produce what the customer wants, how much they want, when they want it. (Function on a just-in- time basis, which will minimise your work-in-process and inventory) | |
| 4 – Level out the workload (Heijunka) | Eliminate wastes, overburden to resources and unevenness in production scheduling | |
| 5 – Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time | Equipment should have built in features that allow it to stop itself when an issue has been detected Thereafter, visual management should be utilised to indicate the support type need | |
| 6 – Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment | Use of constant, replicable methods throughout the organisation to maintain predictability, timing and outputs. Ergo, creating the foundations of pull and flow within the system | |
| 7 – Use visual control so no problems are hidden | Design simplistic visual indicators to aid employees in determining whether they are deviating from standard conditions or not. This will support pull and flow | |
| 8 – Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes | Use technology that supports your employees and does not replace them. It is best to manually work out a process before adding the supporting technology Additionally, conduct annual test on the technology, while not being afraid to reject or modify it | |
| III – Add value to the organisation by developing your people and partners | 9 – Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others | Leaders should be role models within the organisation, which understands the daily work in great detail, such that they can best teach the company’s philosophy to others |
| 10 – Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy | Develop a robust, firm culture, through which company values and beliefs are widely shared and transcends over the various years. Cross-functional teams will improve quality and productivity, while enhancing flow by technical problem-solving | |
| 11 – Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve | Treat your partners and suppliers with veneration, like there is an extension of your organisation. Moreover, challenge them to develop by setting targets and helping them achieve it | |
| IV – Continuously solving root problems drives organisational Learning | 12 – Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi gembutsu) | Personally, observe and verify data, by going to the source of the problem and seeing it for oneself. This will allow managers to have more than a superficial understanding of the issue |
| 13 – Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly | Do not select a single direction until you have meticulously considered the alternatives. Use the Japanese principle of Nemawashi, which is a collective decision-making among all those affected by an issue | |
| 14 – Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen) | After establishing all the process, use continuous improvement tools to address inadequacies. This will allow for the exposure and elimination of waste Moreover, reflect on crucial milestones and develop best practices going forward |
| Section | Principle | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I – Long-term philosophy | 1 – Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy even at the expense of short-term | Align the entire organisation and grow towards a bigger goal than making a profit. Be responsible as the organisation generates value for society, customers and the economy |
| II – The right process will produce the right results | 2 – Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface | Processes should be re-designed to accomplish value- added, continuous flow, while reducing the idle time to zero |
| 3 – Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction | Only produce what the customer wants, how much they want, when they want it. (Function on a just-in- time basis, which will minimise your work-in-process and inventory) | |
| 4 – Level out the workload (Heijunka) | Eliminate wastes, overburden to resources and unevenness in production scheduling | |
| 5 – Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time | Equipment should have built in features that allow it to stop itself when an issue has been detected | |
| 6 – Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee | Use of constant, replicable methods throughout the organisation to maintain predictability, timing and outputs. Ergo, creating the foundations of pull and flow within the system | |
| 7 – Use visual control so no problems are hidden | Design simplistic visual indicators to aid employees in determining whether they are deviating from standard conditions or not. This will support pull and flow | |
| 8 – Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes | Use technology that supports your employees and does not replace them. It is best to manually work out a process before adding the supporting technology | |
| III – Add value to the organisation by developing your people and partners | 9 – Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others | Leaders should be role models within the organisation, which understands the daily work in great detail, such that they can best teach the company’s philosophy to others |
| 10 – Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy | Develop a robust, firm culture, through which company values and beliefs are widely shared and transcends over the various years. Cross-functional teams will improve quality and productivity, while enhancing flow by technical problem-solving | |
| 11 – Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve | Treat your partners and suppliers with veneration, like there is an extension of your organisation. Moreover, challenge them to develop by setting targets and helping them achieve it | |
| IV – Continuously solving root problems drives organisational Learning | 12 – Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi gembutsu) | Personally, observe and verify data, by going to the source of the problem and seeing it for oneself. This will allow managers to have more than a superficial understanding of the issue |
| 13 – Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly | Do not select a single direction until you have meticulously considered the alternatives. Use the Japanese principle of Nemawashi, which is a collective decision-making among all those affected by an issue | |
| 14 – Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen) | After establishing all the process, use continuous improvement tools to address inadequacies. This will allow for the exposure and elimination of waste |
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