The Bee Hive

Recently I was asked, "Why is implementing lean manufacturing such a big deal? The book I just read suggests I only need to worry about managing the value stream. Why is it so hard to do?"

While the effort required to be successful in an enterprise resources planning (ERP) system implementation is fairly well documented and understood, implementing lean and world-class manufacturing is far less clear. To help those who have a strong background using ERP systems, let's draw some analogies common to both types of implementations.

"Been There, Done That"

It's important to have consultants and/or insiders with excellent project management skills running the process. This is critical to an ERP implementation. A huge number of critical path activities must be connected and well coordinated; key milestones must be met.

Experience is ultra crucial for lean/world class implementations. ERP is arguably 80 percent technology and 20 percent people, while lean/world-class is reverse. Negotiating the painful and emotional changes of a full-blown lean implementation effort is much more difficult because you're affecting almost everyone - not just system users.

Train, Train, Train 

Off-the-shelf and customized training are required, based on the circumstances of your implementation. With an ERP implementation, it's critical. If users don't receive effective training, you will fail to achieve benefits in the short term.

Given the fact that lean/world-class manufacturing is 80 to 90 percent people and 10 to 20 percent technology and tools, if you blow the training, reinforcement, and customization part, you can kiss any potential benefits goodbye. Unlike the ERP project, which you can get executed through brute force with a small group of subject-matter experts, you only get one chance with lean/world-class implementations. If you fail, there will be such a bad taste in everyone's mouth that you will never get another chance, though maybe your replacement will someday.

Successfully Managing Change 

Implementation success is largely dependent on successfully managing changes in the organization's structure and way of doing business. This is important in an ERP implementation. If the user community and leadership don't embrace the unavoidable changes, passive and aggressive resistance can derail the process. This requires top management buy-in and commitment for the one to three years the process takes. If your team is strong enough, top management does not necessarily have to be the primary sponsor and cheerleader for a successful implementation, though it certainly helps.

For a lean/world-class implementation, managing change is ultra critical. For traditionally-run firms, the structural changes represented by running lean/world-class manufacturing guarantee massive passive and aggressive resistance. Look at the big three automakers' struggles for the last 15 years - you will find that management legacies of the 1970s are alive and well despite public proclamations of "getting lean." Successful implementers of lean/world-class typically succeed because top management is the principle cheerleader and champion. Delegating leadership in a lean/world-class implementation never is successful, no matter how strong the implementation may be.

Patience and Measurable Results 

It's required before measurable results are evident. The benefits of an ERP implementation don't occur until business processes are operating with the new system and the old system has been turned off.

But with a lean/world-class implementation, minimal patience is required. Companies just starting out find much low hanging fruit in the form of dramatically reducing waste. I have been rooutinely able to get a 25, 40, or even 60 percent productivity improvement in an operating unit in only a few weeks.

Patience and The Final Lap 

How much patience is required to reap the full benefits of an implementation? With an ERP implementation, not much because the benefits will begin to pile up as soon as you complete the implementation. As long as the old system is dead, people will readily adapt to the new reality.

The lean/world-class implementation requires patience of a saint. Structural changes are usually excruciating for just about everyone, in particular for middle management who find their roles completely transformed. This group is the biggest source of passive resistance. Moving from centralized "control by the few" to the team-based "control by the many" is neither automatic nor intuitive. If you think people will all just naturally get it, you will probably still secretly believe professional wrestling is for real!