8 things

Lean requires

Created by Tom Curtis 2011Blog: www.onimproving.blogspot.comOther presentation on www.slideshare.netUnder Onimproving  Email: ideamerchants@gmail.comFollow me on Twitter @onimproving

Cost comes in many a form, that is outside our thinking norm.

IntroductionLean requires... How would you finish this

sentence? Give it some thought. Lean is not free and is often hard. Its simple concepts sometimes lull us

into believing it to be easier than reality shows. What follows is eight of my answers and micro-essays. Use

them as a thought starter to review what you think Lean requires. Lean holds great promise if we invest

properly. If we have a better understanding of what is required, we can better plan, implement, and maintain.

Enjoy the thought process. I welcome hearing how you completed the sentence. Live Lean. --Tom Curtis

Time Lean tools and concepts will yield some early gains and successes, but for the fuller benefits of lean, time must be given in implementation

and to allow growth. Lean requires Time.

ResourcesResources are a key

investment of Lean. Without the right skills and amount of coaching and doing, Lean

goes from being a promising theory to a source of

disappointment.Lean requires resources.

Follow up

Lean is not a single wave, cycles of improvement are required. Efforts must be made to repeat, reinforce, retrain, and review what is taught and implemented.

We must be present. Lean requires follow up.

Focus

Implementing Lean cannot be a part time thing. Implementing

Lean cannot be a surface effort. It cannot be a shotgun spread of activities. We must begin with hawk like eyes on a target we will ware out and then move on to the next. We must maintain before we move on.

Lean requires focus.

PatienceLean will, with proper

application, show early results. But as a bud peeking through the dirt in Spring is not a flower in full bloom so it is with Lean. You will see beauty through out

the growth process but full benefits require patience.Lean requires patience.

EffortImprovement rarely happens when an implementation is left to itself.

There is a substantial requirement of energy and stamina to drive lasting improvement. We must ensure that ourselves and those we work with are able and willing to work with

enough pace and strength to make the right things happen. Lean requires effort.

Thinking

Lean comes with plenty to do, but if done correctly also comes with a lot of planning and thinking.

Doing without planning and thinking frequently results

in waste. We must think as we plan and as we do.

Lean requires thinking.

Resiliency

Lean requires doing the hard thing over and over again. It will be resisted often strongly, but sometimes in a quiet but subservient way. We need to

overcome setbacks and disappointments and provide

a steady course to follow. Lean requires resiliency.