Lean management is a philosophy, but due to regular use in the business, it becomes a practice. It focuses on eliminating waste from production processes, which is to take the proper efforts as ultimately goal to add value to the customer.
Implementation of lean manufacturing can be challenging job due to common pitfalls. Such as lack of commitment from top management, employee engagement, complex operational system etc.
However, Lean Management is highly successful in most organizations, hence its popularity.
But there are some companies that do not get benefit from lean management, nor achieve the desired results from it. In the end it may even fail.
But if lean management is prone to failure, where are the reasons?
Why does it fail?
Are lean management processes and methods flawed? or
It fails due to lack of proper implementations at various levels of company.
So, let’s see what are the reasons actually? What makes Lean Management fail in any organization, company, or business:
General Reasons for failure
Lack of commitment.
Most of the companies that have failed lean management have been found to have not fully committed to the core principles and practices of lean management. So, there are defects in its implementation.
This is not like playing a pinch; it takes a long time to fully embed Lean Management into company practices, hence the company should be patient and proactive.
When you implement Lean Manufacturing in a company, make sure that it works at every level of the production area.
Some companies implement only certain aspects of lean management, without understanding the underlying philosophy of lean manufacturing. It is obvious that the desired results cannot be achieved unless the underlying philosophy of Lean Manufacturing is understood.
Lack of leadership support.
If you want to drive effective change and continuous improvement through lean management in the manufacturing sector, it is essential that someone provides strong leadership for all these processes.
Remember, without leadership support and engagement, employees may not fully embrace change. At the same time, leaders at all levels of production must create a culture of resource allocation and continuous improvement.
Therefore, if there is a lack of leadership in a company, the necessary changes in production areas, improvements, implementation of lean management at all levels, enthusiasm among employees and many other tasks are not completed, which leads to failure.
Failure to involve employees.
One thing is very important, whenever we are going to integrate a system or technology into the processes in the production sector, it is very important that all the people working in the production sector have all the information about the replacement processes and systems.
Also how to work on those systems or processes should be systematically explained. This may be one of the reasons why, when we integrate Lean Manufacturing into production areas, we must involve every employee at all levels and connect to the processes to identify and solve problems.
So that the information about the processes can be accurately understood and corrected. But if it is not done, failure may occur. Cannot take advantage of the collective knowledge and experience of employees, which hinders progress.
Excessive stress on tools.
Misdirection is often caused by misunderstandings, as is possible in these types of systems, such as the assumption that processes will be improved based on the tools and techniques provided by a Lean system. And it is true, but tools have their limitations. So instead of the underlying philosophy of a Lean system, it relies heavily on tools alone. which is full of errors. Some companies may focus too strongly on tools and techniques, without understanding the broader philosophy, which creates a lack of continuous improvement.
External factors.
Naturally many external factors are one such condition, which can harm any system. These factors include market changes or supply chain disruptions etc. Any company’s lean practices can be difficult to implement and sustain. For example, a company may have implemented lean management practices, but a sudden downturn in the economy may lead to a drop in demand for its products, making it difficult to sustain the gains made by lean management.
Difficult to change Cultural.
When we are going to install lean management in the company, it is natural that the system that has been running for years has to be changed. This is actually a challenge. Because fundamental changes in the way an organization operates will thus be a fundamental cultural change. When a system is going to be installed in the system, naturally it has to change from the lower level to the upper level of the production process, which affects each level.
Lack of sustained effort over time
As any improvement process requires continuous effort, it is obvious that maintaining Lean management requires constant attention and effort. Often after initial success, managers become complacent and abandon development efforts. As a result, the effectiveness of correctional processes is reduced. Which really becomes a difficult and challenging situation. This decline may be due to a lack of focus on the continuous improvement aspects of lean management or a change in leadership or organizational priorities.
Lack of Collaboration and Communication
As you know, lean management is known for it’s a holistic approach, which looks at the entire value stream of the business rather than individual or functions. It is natural that, every employee strives to achieve the goals and objectives of the business individually. But are all the goals and objectives of the business actually met? How does an individual or department perform tasks? Is the necessary arrangement available for that? etc. should be discussed with every employee of the business. In fact, without collaboration and communication, the achievement of goals and objectives in different parts of the organization is not possible. This can be one of the main reasons why lean management can fail.
By not paying attention to the customer
Lean management’s primary commitment is to a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. At the same time, customers have to deliver high-quality products and services that meet those needs. Obviously, without this focus on the customer, lean management efforts can fail.
Failure to Create a Sense of Urgency
When we want to introduce a new system in the production areas, it is natural that there is a need for changes in the system at all levels of the production area. If a company does not prioritize the need for such major change, it naturally fails.
How to recover from it?
Actually, this is a serious problem, when we want to establish lean management in the system but face a lot of struggles in implementing it. Thus, it is natural that there are difficulties while establishing any system in the system, but they are there to some extent. But when due to that, if the entire system starts to get chaotic, then that time is considered very difficult.
That is why here I have given steps to recover the system and bring all the processes back into order if there is a struggle while establishing the lean management in the system or there is a fear that the system will go out of order:
Reassessing implementation
When there are defects in the arrangements, it is obvious that there must have been a defect in some process or something else. Losing at such a time will not work, the opposite situation will become more serious, especially damaging to the production sectors.
What to do?
First of all, calm your mind and think where are the steps taken in lean management? What processes have been changed? What are the results of the changes? Identify where things really went wrong.
Investigating the initial implementation of lean management is the first step. Ask yourself, what is the underlying philosophy of lean management? What are the limitations of tools and techniques? What action was not taken by the leadership and where action was actually taken? Are all employees involved in the processes? or are they integrated into the philosophy? Were there any specific areas where implementation fell short?
Refocus on the core philosophy of lean management.
It is said, “Attention gone, tragedy fallen” and this is also the reality. Whenever our attention is diverted from any task, process, or object, then there are possibilities of deficiencies in it. Especially when we are talking about manufacturing sectors, we have to be very careful.
When we are implementing lean management, we can get off track by “ignoring” the steps outlined in the core philosophy of lean management. So, this could be one of the reasons for the failure. So, after identifying the root cause, the philosophy of lean management should be refocused.
This means prioritizing a culture of continuous improvement and ensuring that all employees understand the principles of lean management.
Re-engage employees.
If we want to re-establish lean management, it is very important that people from all levels in the manufacturing sector get involved in lean management and follow its philosophy. It is obvious that if the employees were not sufficiently lean management conscious in the initial implementation, now is the time to improve it.
For that, the business and its leaders will have to take necessary steps. Such as training and educating employees at all levels on lean principles and techniques to succeed with lean management. Develop a feedback mechanism for employees to suggest improvements. Also employees should be empowered to take ownership of their work processes.
Provide leadership support
There are many processes, functions, systems, and equipment used in any manufacturing sector. When we want to improve or change a system, it is necessary that we need resources or other tools. The responsibility to fulfill the requirement rests with the top leadership. Lean management can also be successfully implemented by meeting the need for resources through leadership to make lean management a success. In short, leadership support should be all processes, resources, manpower, financially, as well as their own commitment.
Analysis and improvement of processes.
When we want to find and correct the defects, then it is necessary to improve the processes. For this, the processes should be analyzed regularly, and if any improvement is found, it should be corrected at the earliest. In analysis, we must think seriously about how to prevent more and more waste from processes.
The steps mentioned above are general steps for lean management, it is possible that the company can enhance depending on the requirements, processes, and internal systems. Be aware that it is possible for lean management to be fully embedded in a system, and to recover from conflicts if it is strived for. But there must be a commitment to continuous improvement and a willingness to embrace change. The result can be improved efficiency, reduced waste and a competitive advantage in the market.
Example:
Suppose a company named ABC manufactures steel pipes.
The company felt the need to implement lean management practices to improve production processes. The company instituted lean management practices. And over time the company began to map their value stream, identifying areas of waste in the production process and eliminating them.
The company then felt that more improvements should be made using the tools that were now needed, so the company started implementing several lean tools and techniques such as 5S, Kanban and Just-in-Time (JIT).
Initially, the company experienced significant improvements in their production processes.
This genuine effort has resulted in a reduction in lead time, which is truly commendable. At the same time, the quality of the product improved due to these efforts.
After a few months, they started experiencing problems. As lead times began to increase again, the amount of waste in the processes increased exponentially. Also, other inventory management challenges started to be faced.
Investigation
A change in this situation is detrimental to the company. So, the company thought that now is the time to look into this in depth. So, an investigation was undertaken.
During Tapas it was learned that everything was fine in the early stages of lean management, but after a few months the focus of the logo was applicable from the lean management processes and its core culture. This was the root cause of the problems. They used lean tools and techniques, but their understanding of the philosophy was neglected. So, the culture of continuous improvement was hindered. There was a need for an immediate solution to this.
Solution
As we saw during the investigation it was found that the culture of continuous improvement in the company had almost disappeared. As a side effect of which, problems were coming up. It is obvious that an immediate solution is needed now.
To address these issues, the company has to start focusing more on developing a culture of continuous improvement. Simply put, it will be necessary to provide employee training and education on lean principles and techniques to all employees of the company. A feedback mechanism has to be developed to encourage employees to suggest improvements. Also, a team will be formed for continuous improvement. which will regularly analyze the processes, and also give suggestions for improvements.
Improvements
Now, as the company initially responded well to the lean system and grew, it failed to sustain over time. So, one has to be careful to avoid this type of mistake happening again.
It is obvious that the processes that were deprived of improvement will now have to be worked on. As a result of these changes the company will also be able to sustain and improve their lean management efforts. The lead time will also be further reduced through the effort. The company will be able to reduce inventory levels while maintaining high levels of product quality.
Additionally, by involving employees in the process, they will be empowered to suggest improvements. A company will be able to leverage the collective knowledge and skills of its employees and achieve sustained success with lean management.
Summary
This example explains – How a lack of focus on the people and culture side of lean management can hinder the success of lean initiatives? Hence, creating a culture of continuous improvement is really essential. In lean management, all the employees’ involvements is much important to improvement at all level of the manufacturing processes. However, companies can achieve long-term success with lean management.
Conclusion
So, here we have discussed under which circumstances lean management is likely to fail due to which reasons. Also showed serious consideration about how this failure can be turned into success.
Note that – Lean management can be a powerful approach to improving processes and reducing waste, but this is no “Magic Stick”. For that, from the managers working in the higher management of the production sector to the employees working at the lower level, everyone has to work together and continuously work for lean management.