“Relentless” leadership and team empowerment drive lean change For those of you who have heard this before, it bears repeating. For those of you who have not, this is important – leadership is the single most important component to lean success. It is exciting to talk about bottom-up change and expect that a ground swell of individuals in virtually every level of the organizational chart can succeed with lean—in spite of those in the C-suite that just don’t get it. But in practice, this has to happen early on or there is little-to-no chance of success. Who’s driving this thing? I am not saying that lean changes cannot start from the bottom-up; but the situation needs to flip quickly to leadership driving the bus. That’s because at some point early on in your lean journey, your methods will start to conflict with some long-standing processes and metrics. These formerly sacrosanct topics need to be addressed by leadership (those with the power to change them) before your journey can continue. Once leadership is on board, the leader(s) can come from anywhere in the company. But to prevent stagnation at a higher level, leaders must carry the torch of continuous improvement tirelessly and relentlessly. 80/20 rule They can start out leading the kaizen events but they need to mentor and train those doing the work in order to keep continuous improvement alive and well. Mature lean organizations expect 80% of their improvements to come directly from those closest to the work. This is the only way to fully utilize the talents and capabilities of your human assets. Give the people closest to the work the tools and the support necessary to astound you with their creativity and innovation. Out on the floor Gone are the days where leaders sit in their offices sending out directives to the rest of the organization and lead mainly by pounding on the rest of us when those directives are not met. Today, leaders are responsible for training and mentoring their people. They equip them with the tools of continuous improvement and empower them to remove the obstacles that block their way. Here are some ways I have seen manufacturing leadership create a more demand-driven culture: Of machines and men (or women) - Leaders who think of their production staff as extensions of their equipment are making a fatal error. Empowered people who feel their bosses care about keeping them on staff by growing their skills and offering development opportunities are the people who will drive the changes needed to make your business excel. “Scaffolding” support - It is a huge mistake to treat your people like their only role is to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) handed down from above and that the only way they drive value is when their direct labor hours are being absorbed into products. You are under-utilizing the most valuable assets in your organization.

1. Three Ways Leaders Create Lean
John Maher
Vice President of Product Strategy
synchrono.com 1

2. Lean Culture
• For those of you who have heard
this before, it bears repeating.
• For those of you who have not,
this is important – leadership is
the single most important
component to lean success.
• It’s exciting to talk about bottom-up
change and how a swell of
individuals can succeed with lean.
• In practice, however, this has to
happen early on or there is little-to-
no change of success.
“Relentless”
leadership
and team
empowerment
drive lean
change.
synchrono.com 2

3. Who’s driving this thing?
• Not to say that lean changes cannot start from the
bottom-up, but you need leadership driving the bus.
• If not, your methods will start to conflict with some
long-standing processes and metrics.
• These formerly sacrosanct topics need to be
addressed by leadership before you continue.
• Once leadership is on board, the leaders can come
from anywhere in the company.
• To prevent stagnation at a higher level, leaders must
carry the torch of continuous improvement relentlessly.
synchrono.com 3

4. 80/20 rule
• They can start out leading the kaizen events but they
need to mentor and train those doing the work in order
to keep continuous improvement alive and well.
• Lean organizations expect 80% of their improvements
to come directly from those closest to the work.
• This is the only way to fully utilize the talents and
capabilities of your human assets.
• Give the people closest to the work the tools and
support necessary to astound you with their creativity
and innovation.
synchrono.com 4

5. Out on the floor
• Gone are the days where leaders sit in their offices
sending out directives to the rest of the organization
and lead by pounding on the rest of us when those
directives are not met.
• Today, leaders are responsible for training and
mentoring their people.
• They equip them with the tools of continuous
improvement and empower them to remove the
obstacles that block their way.
synchrono.com 5

6. Out on the floor
• Here are some ways that leadership has created a
more demand-driven culture:
1. Of machines and men/women – Leaders who
think of their production staff as extensions of their
equipment are making a fatal error. Empowered
people who feel their bosses care about keeping
them on staff by growing their skills and offering
development opportunities are the people who will
drive the changes needed to make your business
excel.
synchrono.com 6

7. Out on the floor
• Here are some ways that leadership has created a
more demand-driven culture:
2. “Scaffolding” support – It’s a huge mistake to
treat your people like their only role is to follow
standard operating procedures (SOPs). You are
under-utilizing the most valuable assets in your
organization. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you
must build the scaffolding needed to support your
people by giving them the tools, confidence, and
authority to make changes.
synchrono.com 7

8. Out on the floor
• Here are some ways that leadership has created a
more demand-driven culture:
3. Training rolls on – Training should never stop. I
hear the unending list of obstacles – no time,
budget, senior-support, etc., but every moment
spent training your people yields ongoing hours
saved in fixing mistakes & putting out fires. Equip
them with the tools, confidence, and abilities to
speak up when something’s wrong. Show them
how to look for solutions & take ownership of
results.
synchrono.com 8

9. Supply Chain
• I have been working with supply chain professionals
and manufacturing leaders my entire career.
• If there is one thing I can say about the successful
ones, it is this:
Effective change agents in manufacturing
environments invariably spring from a
leadership culture that supports the people
not just the change – every step of the
way.
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10. John Maher
John’s passion for demand-driven manufacturing is equal
to his interest in how this method improves the lives of
employees within these environments. “I’m here to help,
not to judge” comments John whose blog posts reflect why
demand-driven matters and are based on his experience
working in manufacturing environments and expertise in
ERP, MRP, APS, supply chain, manufacturing planning
and scheduling systems and constraints management.
synchrono.com 10

11. Learn more.
View the original post
Request a software demo
info@synchrono.com
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12. Stay in sync.
Synchrono® is a dynamic, growing
company – in the news and on the
move; innovating real-time demand-driven
manufacturing solutions.
We invite you to follow us and stay in
sync.
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