Jimmy Fitzpatrick

Every day, companies across a wide range of industries use LEAN in their supply chain operations, warehouses, distribution centers, finance departments, customer service centers, and many other areas. LEAN practices improve safety, quality, and productivity by extracting waste from all facets of an operation – from the procurement of raw materials to the shipment of finished goods.

LEAN is a component of enriching the culture and driving engagement, instilling a vested interest to reach… Show more

Every day, companies across a wide range of industries use LEAN in their supply chain operations, warehouses, distribution centers, finance departments, customer service centers, and many other areas. LEAN practices improve safety, quality, and productivity by extracting waste from all facets of an operation – from the procurement of raw materials to the shipment of finished goods.

LEAN is a component of enriching the culture and driving engagement, instilling a vested interest to reach a common goal. The roots of LEAN date back to Henry Ford’s manufacturing innovations in the early 20th century. However, LEAN manufacturing really had its start after World War II at the Toyota Motor Company due to the fact that post war resources were scarce, and manufacturing needed to be kick-started.

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However you recognize your employees, this final step closes the loop and ties all of the other steps together. You’ve set expectations, measured and communicated them, trained employees. Now, reward them to keep that good thing going. By empowering your people using these five steps, our automotive retailer was able to take performance to the next level. Could a Lean culture help you increase morale, productivity and employee engagement?

For the retail customer, the second phase of the transformation was to cultivate a Lean culture. This effort focused on three primary goals:

1. Create an incident-free workplace

2. Improve customer service

3. Eliminate waste by empowering employees, improving continuously and engaging leadership

The secret to achieving these goals: reinforcing the staff with new operations and engineering managers experienced in Lean principles and continuous improvement, and… Show more

For the retail customer, the second phase of the transformation was to cultivate a Lean culture. This effort focused on three primary goals:

1. Create an incident-free workplace

2. Improve customer service

3. Eliminate waste by empowering employees, improving continuously and engaging leadership

The secret to achieving these goals: reinforcing the staff with new operations and engineering managers experienced in Lean principles and continuous improvement, and educating high-potential managers on Lean. This enabled the company to focus on aligning information systems, standardizing work processes and building a Lean culture.

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By focusing on priorities, holding detailed weekly reviews and bringing in talent from the outside, the supply chain team was able to alleviate issues and focus on improving service levels. Interested in finding out what happened next and the amazing results that Lean can deliver? Stay tuned for my next post. In the meantime –Muda, Mura, Muri…Stay effective, not efficient!