Lean Connections

Posted yesterday by John Moe who is currently Head of Business Consulting at Alphacourt Limited in the UK.    I’ve been following his posts for a while now and would classify a number of them as “seriously brilliant.”    John, I know quite a few of us Yanks will be grinning over lunch today as we read this.    Adam Zak

“Have you been confronted by a Black Belt recently? Unless you are into martial arts then this has most likely happened at work when you have been hit by a Lean Six Sigma (6S) initiative (or possibly operative if you got in the way). I am using 6S here to encompass both the Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma concepts, particularly as many organisations tend to use a hybrid of the two. What started off as a way for manufacturers to actual work out how to build something that didn’t disintegrate/explode/maim unexpectedly as soon as the punter got the product home (or in the case of British Leyland before you got home), has turned into a quasi-religious movement that comes with its own zealots and sacred texts”.  

More chuckles as you read the full text of John’s post here…

Continuously improving means just that. Nowhere is it written that when things aren’t so rosy it’s time to take a break from CI. If your corporate culture has any meaning at all, focusing on Operational Excellence is all the more critical now. These are the cornerstones you need to be reinforcing for the future.

Do you have the Lean Leadership team necessary for your company to survive, and even thrive, during the current economic downturn?  Do your Lean Leaders have the expertise and experience to build a stronger foundation for growth and profitability during the coming rebound?  

As a recent message from Jim Womack’s Lean Enterprise Institute emphasizes, great Lean Leaps are made during tough economic times. Taiichi Ohno pushed the Toyota Production System through the entire Toyota Motor Company in 1950 during the great crisis that had left Toyota teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Short term, the right Lean Leaders will create immediate benefits:  freeing cash through elimination of excess inventory, protecting profit margins by improving quality and productivity, strengthening ties with customers by improving service, and converting orders-to-cash faster by reducing lead times. But just as importantly, strategic Lean Leaders will also help your company build for the future and create long-term competitive advantage. With the right Lean team in place your company can advance its Lean transformation using a systemic approach across the enterprise:

• By developing employees as problem solvers;
• By changing the management culture from command and control to fact-based and flexible;
• By extending the Lean transformation beyond the manufacturing shop floor to finance, engineering, marketing, and other critical support areas;
• By implementing Lean principles across the supply chain at your key suppliers and at their key suppliers;
• By transitioning from a tools-based implementation path to a course that applies Lean Management as a complete business system;
• By changing the very culture of how the organization thinks and conducts business on a daily basis.

You know it makes sense.  Do it!

I’ve been following the fortunes of Avnet (NYSE:AVT) for quite a while now, watching them build Lean and Continuous Improvement into their corporate culture.  How fitting then that Steve Church, Avnet’s top HR guy, should be elevated to the position of Chief Operational Excellence Officer.

As we’ve all heard over and over again, and as I’ve written here in the past, Operational Excellence is NOT just about the tools and techniques, or even the processes.  It’s about the people: engaged, focused, enthusiastic and yes, even HAPPY!  Is that so hard to understand and deliver in today’s business environment? Why are there not lots and lots of companies who GET it?

How Avnet COO Rick Hamada describes this move says volumes about their unique corporate culture:

“Avnet’s pursuit of operational excellence remains vital to our long-term success,” said Hamada. “Steve’s business experience and acumen combined with his proven ability to engage employees is a distinctly valuable combination. In his new role, Steve will further foster Avnet’s culture of excellence to consistently strive for continuous improvement in our execution and process innovation.”

Vital indeed. And one of the reasons Avnet is tops in their market sector on this year’s Fortune Magazine’s list of “Most Admired Companies.”  Kudos to Hamada and his team for recognizing and delivering.  Adam Zak