The disappointment of James Womack, author of Lean Production (lean production, lean manufacturing)

James P. Womack, founder and senior advisor, Lean Enterprise Institute, author of Lean Thinking / James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, The Machine That Changed the World Changed the World / James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones) “Gemba Walks Expanded / Jim Womack, John Shook”, “Lean Solutions” (James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones).

Article: "Jim Womack on the failure of lean manufacturing and why you shouldn't give up.", August 29, 2017 Article source: planet-lean.com

Translator: Scientific Director of the AQT Center Sergey P. Grigoryev

It is important to note that lean production, as the concept of lean is defined in Russian, is impossible without top management of enterprises acting with understanding Edwards Deming's System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) .

Free access to articles does not in any way diminish the value of the materials contained in them.

With two major milestones this summer—the 20th anniversary of the Lean Enterprise Institute and the 10th anniversary of the Lean Global Network—I recently found myself reflecting on my and Dan Jones' hopes for a lean movement around the world that would create lean thinking. . Then we wrote the books "The Machine That Changed the World" in 1990 and "Lean Thinking" in 1996.

On the one hand, The Machine was a technical analysis of differences in the competitiveness of national automobile industries around the world and the reasons for these differences. But on another level, in the last few chapters, it was a vision of what the world would look like if the principles of lean manufacturing were applied everywhere to significantly improve productivity and quality, as well as improve the working conditions of workers and improve the skills of their managers.

The book Lean Thinking, published in 1996, doubled down on this vision, arguing that lean value creation methods could be applied to every industry in every country to improve working conditions and eliminate much of the need for the flow of products and human resources between regions. (Remember the famous global journey of a can of Coke with three hours of value creation over 319 days and 10,000 miles, which we encouraged readers to rethink.)

We have shown that lean principles are not bound by country, company, or professional culture, no matter how ingrained they may seem, and we have provided examples of dramatic breakthroughs in value stream performance (kaikaku) as visionaries from many countries and industries relaxed these constraints . However, in most cases the world did not follow our advice.

And when Dan and I made a compelling case in 2003 that all stages of production should be located as close to the consumer as possible (remember the case of a windshield wiper installed assembled in a car in the northeastern United States, the assembly of which from one-piece parts was moved 1,500 miles to Mexico to reduce the cost of three minutes of manual labor), managers of multinational corporations were unable to perform simple arithmetic (we called it “lean mathematics”) to minimize overall costs.

Instead, they went in the opposite direction, maximizing the muda of unnecessary transportation - made easier by falling shipping and communication costs - to move inexorably towards the lowest-wage jobs.

Managers seemingly tried to place each step in complex production chains, including back-office processes, as far apart as possible under the slogan “there is no such thing as distance.” At the same time, value managers spent their time cutting jobs, cutting wages, and generally making working conditions less satisfactory. (“The Walmart Effect.”)

Where are we? With a serious threat to the integrated world economy - in which I have always deeply believed - and with an astonishing level of discontent among workers around the world. Brilliantly!

Meanwhile, in the Lean Community I notice a growing quietism - accepting things as they are, without trying to resist or change them. The emphasis has shifted from lean manufacturing to fundamentally transform an organization, including value stream compression, to small-scale kaizen and training of individuals (usually middle or lower level managers) without necessarily changing the management systems in which they work. This is normal, but can it go very far?

Shocking thought: Were the first generation leaders who wanted to spread lean thinking beyond Toyota (and I hope I was one of them) simply naive? Should we just give up?

I do not give up. Never. But we need to avoid the "muda" of denial of our situation, and also avoid the "muda" of defeatism.

In terms of denial, we must acknowledge that our efforts to fundamentally transform large, mature organizations have not worked and will not work even when those organizations face crises. I recently spent several years with CEOs of large enterprises and convinced them to authorize value stream model lines to demonstrate the capabilities. The results were substantially positive, but the organizational immune reaction was immediate and overwhelming. Little was achieved and I moved on. I no longer expect “another Toyota” to appear in every mature industry.

Likewise, we must recognize that our traditional ways of teaching lean techniques in seminars and explaining our ideas through educational books are in a stage of diminishing returns. Many people know what to do, but few have the context for it. We need to think seriously about better ways to pass on lean knowledge to the next generation.

But let's not stoop to defeatism! Great leaders are still doing great lean things:

• a lean farm in Indiana that just eliminated most of the muda traffic (another example of this can be found at a lean bakery in Barcelona that you'll be reading about soon);
• the Saint Bernard Project (SBP), a disaster relief organization in New Orleans;
• many lean startups;
• a large number of firms attempting to create lean product and process development systems.

Our job as a Lean Community is to showcase and support our accomplishments in any way we can, while also looking for the next great leader.

Yes, after all these years I am disappointed in how little progress we have made in promoting lean thinking. The Yokoten challenge has barely begun, and we as a community will need to rethink our tactics, stick to our purpose, and better understand the issues that are preventing us from staying the course. But this doesn't scare me at all. Lean's global promise to every worker in every country to improve their performance while improving their working conditions remains the North Star the world needs. Indeed, ensuring that the star continues to shine brightly is a fitting mission as we mark two important anniversaries.