Comments on: Successful Lean Steering Committees http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/ on lean culture, transformational leadership, and entrepreneurial excellence Thu, 17 May 2012 13:30:13 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ankit Patel http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/comment-page-1/#comment-236 Ankit Patel Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:59:55 +0000 http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/#comment-236 I think that it didn't really take hold because honestly Michael Dell and his staff really didn't buy into lean. It turned out that the Engineering Director was trying to save the manufacturing plants by rushing in lean implementations in very aggressive timelines. I'll give him credit for trying but it wasn't exactly a natural path. Love the posts! Ankit I think that it didn’t really take hold because honestly Michael Dell and his staff really didn’t buy into lean. It turned out that the Engineering Director was trying to save the manufacturing plants by rushing in lean implementations in very aggressive timelines. I’ll give him credit for trying but it wasn’t exactly a natural path. Love the posts!

Ankit

]]> By: Jamie Flinchbaugh http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/comment-page-1/#comment-235 Jamie Flinchbaugh Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:56:35 +0000 http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/#comment-235 Ankit, thanks for sharing your experiences. It's too bad the lean efforts weren't enough to save the teams; this is a reality for many people. But often it gives them the best chance to. Ankit, thanks for sharing your experiences. It’s too bad the lean efforts weren’t enough to save the teams; this is a reality for many people. But often it gives them the best chance to.

]]> By: Ankit Patel http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/comment-page-1/#comment-234 Ankit Patel Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:13:12 +0000 http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2009/12/successful-lean-steering-committees/#comment-234 Jamie, Great post as always! I know from my time at Dell we had 3 different Value streams go through the transformations at different times and I can tell you it was very interesting to see the steering committees for each. New build desktops were the first to carry lean and it was new to the company so there were bureaucracies left over from traditional management styles. Meetings were very large encompassing about 30 people and it was more of a status update instead of an actual steering committee. Communication out to the rest of the org was unstructured and inconsistent. Very few line leads would be in the meetings. The next value stream to implement lean was the returns and refurbishment center. This was a little better because we had about 15 people at the meetings, the meetings were on the floor and there was more PDCA (plan do check act) in these meetings than in the new build meetings. We had line leads and line operators in these meetings. The best case happened with our third transformation. The value stream was lease returns and refurbishment. That steering committee was a true steering committee. It was a standing meeting with 10 people and we would have line leads and line operators in all the time. Communications form the meeting were visual and on the shop floor and alignment was a systematic process that was executed well. The one down fall to all three was the continued learning piece. It might have been due to the fact that at the time people didn't know if the facility would even be there next year but I'm pretty sure that if there was a 4th transformation or if we just had some time to develop these organizations they would have come along. The main issue that we ran into was not the starting point but the fact that once we had something it was difficult to move form that starting point. The culture didn't really support improving the processes and really striving to "be lean." New build is now being done in Mexico and both the returns/refurbishment and lease/refurbishment processes were sold off to another company. I think that lean was really used for two things 1) A last ditch effort to try to save the manufacturing units 2) A way to gut the extremely complex process to be able to transfer it to a 3rd party. Ankit Jamie,
Great post as always! I know from my time at Dell we had 3 different Value streams go through the transformations at different times and I can tell you it was very interesting to see the steering committees for each.

New build desktops were the first to carry lean and it was new to the company so there were bureaucracies left over from traditional management styles. Meetings were very large encompassing about 30 people and it was more of a status update instead of an actual steering committee. Communication out to the rest of the org was unstructured and inconsistent. Very few line leads would be in the meetings.

The next value stream to implement lean was the returns and refurbishment center. This was a little better because we had about 15 people at the meetings, the meetings were on the floor and there was more PDCA (plan do check act) in these meetings than in the new build meetings. We had line leads and line operators in these meetings.

The best case happened with our third transformation. The value stream was lease returns and refurbishment. That steering committee was a true steering committee. It was a standing meeting with 10 people and we would have line leads and line operators in all the time. Communications form the meeting were visual and on the shop floor and alignment was a systematic process that was executed well.

The one down fall to all three was the continued learning piece. It might have been due to the fact that at the time people didn’t know if the facility would even be there next year but I’m pretty sure that if there was a 4th transformation or if we just had some time to develop these organizations they would have come along.

The main issue that we ran into was not the starting point but the fact that once we had something it was difficult to move form that starting point. The culture didn’t really support improving the processes and really striving to “be lean.”

New build is now being done in Mexico and both the returns/refurbishment and lease/refurbishment processes were sold off to another company. I think that lean was really used for two things 1) A last ditch effort to try to save the manufacturing units 2) A way to gut the extremely complex process to be able to transfer it to a 3rd party.

Ankit

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