Next Lean: Lean leadership on the shop floor board with real-time data

The book “The Second Revolution in the Car Industry” was published in 1990 and marks the start of thinking in value creation and waste in the Western world, the start of “lean production.” There is much discussion about how lean must be interpreted in a modern way so that it continues to contribute to the productivity of factories between digitization and automation and despite a shortage of skilled workers. This article is intended to contribute to this.

Honestly, there is no alternative concept to lean production. Honestly, however, the average level of lean production penetration in factories is also low. It doesn't fail because of the availability of tools and methods. Kanban, SMED, round traffic and all other tools are well known and well documented. You quickly end up looking for reasons for the low spread of lean in humans — wherever else. People, or more precisely management in the first step and all employees in the second step, must wear lean and have a lean “mindset.” How do you achieve that?

If you want to make a difference in an organization together with people, you can't avoid the topic of “leadership.” This should include either the management of other employees, regardless of hierarchical superiority, subordination or equality — and also the self-management of each individual employee. The theory of lean production has therefore shaped the “Lean Leadership” aliteration.

Lean leadership refers to the ability of managers to create and promote a continuous improvement culture in which employees are involved in the process of problem solving and improvement.

Lean leadership is characterized by a number of characteristics, including:

• Respect for employees and their abilities
• A clear vision and a shared focus on common goals
• A culture of continuous improvement and learning
• Focus on customer needs and customer value
• Empowering employees to make independent decisions
• Avoiding waste and increasing efficiency

In practice, this means that lean leadership practitioners work closely with their teams to identify challenges and implement improvements. They create an environment that promotes innovation and creativity, and ensure that employees receive the necessary resources and training to do their jobs in the best possible way.

That's the theory. However, processes of change in human thought and action towards “lean leadership” are unfortunately not completed and sustainable with a presentation, training or reading a book — or even this article. A company therefore needs more than that.

Shop floor management is an important management situation and a well-known and important management tool in lean production. It is used to have all operational key figures available at a central location, to discuss them regularly and briefly with employees and to consistently derive improvement activities if target values have not been achieved. This involves setting up an information cascade that starts with the plant teams and then builds up through the organizational hierarchies up to the COO. The aim of this form of organization is rapid problem escalation and rapid decision communication in the other direction. If you compare this description with the above list of the characteristics of Lean Leadership, you will find considerable coverage.

Lean production traditionally has a tendency to do things by hand and without using a computer or (complex) technology. The background is that digital tools can restrict participation and flexibility, and their handling can involve waste. However, lean production is not per se opposed to the use of digital technology. The hurdle of deployment seems to lie more in the lack of willingness of old-fashioned lean practitioners to change — but that's a completely different story.

If we interpret lean in a modern way, the use of information technology for data collection and processing, as required for the key figure focus of shop floor management, is absolutely necessary, because this avoids waste, e.g. in the form of errors, duplication of work, long waiting times for evaluations. If data is available in real time, action can be taken more quickly and employees feel responsible for their current performance (keyword participation, autonomy — see above).

We have now developed the three elements of the target state, the North Star, the vision of “Next Lean”: People act according to “Lean Leadership” criteria, the central tool is shop floor management, and the data is collected and provided in real time and automatically.

Finally, let's look at a very common form of production processes, machine-based series production. The moment machines generate part of the added value, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) becomes an important indicator. In this scenario, oee.ai can process the key figures required for shop floor management (e.g. OEE, set-up time, waste, OTIF (on-time in full), etc.) in real time, compare against goals and identify trends. In this way, the data is not only transparent in real time on an Andon and is available for shop floor management. In addition, the effectiveness of improvement measures and their sustainability can be traced based on figures, data and facts. The lean leader thus has his target state in mind.

If you have any questions about this type of lean transformation, then feel free to contact us. We both provide the technology for these projects and we are also available for the consulting part of the implementation. Feel free to talk to us.