We’re about to begin leading the cultural change for Lean at my company and we’ve had this discussion more than a few times among the change agents we’re tageting to get this going. What we’ve come up with is exactly what you’re saying, so we’ve decided to do it both ways.

We’ve decided that the best way we can come up with to start leading the culture change and actually getting something out of it is to first go a mile wide and an inch deep by teaching and practicing 5S. Then we’ll go an inch deep and a mile wide by starting with the people in one cell and training them thoroughly while simultaneously helping them put Lean principles into practice out on the floor in the areas where they actually work every day. Once we believe they understand pretty well and can sustain their efforts and keep going on their own, we’ll move on to the next cell. And just to try to get the most “bang for our buck,” we’re going to pick one of the cells that are…shall we say most in need of Lean to start with, and work our way up to the more efficiently running cells.

We think that this way we can primer everyone with 5S and set the foundation for Lean thinking. And then dive in and get it started with an area most in need of it, make it a success, and move on from there. The 5S primer will set everyone up for Lean and help with sustainment, and the first cell’s turnaround will demonstrate the power and usefulness of Lean and make everyone else want to do it as well! At least that’s our hope…

One reason why Improvement efforts fail is because the resources that are facilitating and helping lead the change get spread too thin. They can scratch the surface in a lot of areas, but when people want more, they can’t deliver beacause there’s just not enough to go around. They are not able to go deep enough to sustain the gains.

Glenn