Recently, we met with a new client and discussed previously completed projects. He said, “yeah, we worked on this issue a couple of years ago, but here we are again, [and production is] down for the same problem.” The root cause of this production failure could have been prevented. Prior to the failure a Lean/Six Sigma project was initiated by an employee who created a potentially good solution. When the project was completed, implementing the process change and behaviors on the production floor were unchanged. Management applauded the effort but the change never became a sustainable solution.
Continuous Improvement is challenging, especially when change is not followed-up or acted upon. When improvement is considered finished and not sustained, the improvement ceases being continuous. Continuous Improvement is not a continual line of discrete process improvement projects; it is ensuring change becomes a new standard in how things are done within the organization.
Sometimes follow-up activity is the responsibility of a Quality Assurance person or a Continuous Improvement Engineer, who can answer questions and make the necessary changes because of problems that weren’t revealed in the project. However, change and improvement doesn’t really become effective until the reinforcement of modified behavior is part of a daily routine, for both the management team and the employees. Once management establishes an expectation, which was derived from a revised process, it is important employee behaviors are modified. The effective adoption of a changed process will become the accepted standard.
A Lean Culture, or a Culture of Continuous Improvement becomes highly effective when both the management team and the employees are working on improvement concurrently. When improvement becomes part of your culture it is a common expectation and everyone is an agent of change. Management is no longer concerned with administering change because it is a valued element of an organization’s identity; people are problem solving and working on the next issue. The need to manage change becomes a minimal effort because systems and behaviors encourage improvement and problem solving.
Toyota says, when there is no problem, then that is a problem. For them, there is a “healthy sense of paranoia” that always says that there is something left to improve.
Improve your culture: In Lean, there are two main pillars. The first is Continuous Improvement. The second is Respect for People. Most Lean projects focus on Continuous Improvement, but this will not truly happen without a focus on people; your customers, your suppliers, and most importantly, your staff.
Lose some “weight”: Organizations that have not implemented Lean may not recognize or be able to quantify how much waste they have in their system. You may be surprised to find as little as 10% of your organization’s time is actually spent on value-added activities.
re “takt”-ful: Takt time is a common term in Lean. It is the pace at which production needs to work to keep up with customer demand. By examining your customer demand, you can determine your organization’s takt time then work to balance the w
ork so each step in the process is close to takt. This, in combination with waste elimination, will reduce the lead time of your process. Full Lean implementation can result in a 25 to 50% reduction in lead-time, which ultimately increases your customer responsiveness. 
Don’t make the same mistakes: Everyone knows the saying “learn from your mistakes,” but we often don’t do this in our organizations. Many times, if a defect is found in a product, or a mistake is made in shipping, the problem is corrected and everyone moves on. Next time, rather than re-soldering that part (for example), challenge yourself and your team to examine the cause for the faulty solder. Was the flux missed? Is the soldering iron too small or not properly cleaned? Is appropriate training in place? You can use tools like “5 Whys” and fishbone diagrams to really dig into the root cause of the problem. By doing so, you can work on preventing the same mistake from happening again rather than just applying a Band-Aid. 
Drive less: Material handling equipment and inventory racking are an important part of many operations. However, once material is moved onto the assembly or manufacturing floor, the focus of Lean is to provide each workstation with the supplies they need as they need them. This often means moving raw material, parts and work-in-progress between workstations in smaller batches, and therefore on a cart instead of with the forklift. When Lean is fully implemented in a manufacturing organization, the company can expect material handling savings on the order of 25 to 50%. 
Clear the clutter: Are there items in your workspace that you have never used? This can happen on the shop floor with tools or manuals for equipment that has long been discarded, as well as in offices with out-dated procedures, or keeping around that broken chair that might one day get fixed. You will find many things that are being kept “just in case.” The New Year is a perfect time to conduct a “red-tagging” exercise. Go through your workspace and place a red-tag on anything that you haven’t used or opened in one year. Once complete, place all of the red-tagged items in a designated space. If no one claims them in 90 days, they will be discarded or donated – just in time for “spring cleaning.”