Professional and Career Topics

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Mitch – I would say we all had exposure to some degrees of Lean way of doing things since childhood. Perhaps not being aware of the term itself – but elements of it have been there. The likeness of: don't keep water running in the faucet while doing something else, only take in the plate what you can eat and finish . . . these sorts of things.

Apart from what we are accustomed to hearing about lean and thin fashion models – the term is often confused and is used in parallel with being minimalist. The underlying idea is that resources (traditional and Natural, to be exact) are finite – and one needs to be diligent what one does with those limited resources, keeping in mind the long-term view of things. Thus being sustainable is another appropriate world for being lean (we have discussed it in other threads).

Since the dawn of Industrialization – social slogan switched to consumerism. The mantra is like this: consume and keep consuming – industries continue producing all sorts of manufactured resources – so there is nothing to worry about the depletion of resources.

And, yielding to the pervasive pressure of advertisements, we tend to accumulate things that are – well, something we can live without. It's the backbone of an economy!

What do being Lean and Sustainable mean then? We often forget that there is another word for these terms – it is called Simplicity. I have tried to emphasize about it in the Artificial Intelligence essay and others. In Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) words: simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

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Dr. Dilip K Barua, PhD

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Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Hi,

My organization offers the Six Sigma courses and I took the first level.

They are trying to change the culture of the organization.  

My observation is that if the people making decisions are not incorporating it into their way of doing business it will not change much.  It does provide hope, however.

We also had to take the FEMA emergency management courses.  The ones where it explains that you should control who responds, have a single manager, span of command, etc. EVERYONE had to take it.  From upper management down to the first level of supervision.  

Everyone still shows up at an emergency, the people managing the emergency took the course but never incorporated it into their mangement.

In a large organization it is hard to change the culture, hard to make sure that management is competent at all levels.  People are complex but we are much better in small groups than in large.  At least that has been my observation.

Echoing the points made by Henry Phillips and James Holland, systems that work for one environment, may not be applicable.  It goes back to the adage, "to someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

If Six Sigma and lean processes change things here I will be very happy, I welcome each and every improvement that we incorporate into our company.

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.

Somewhere in the early 2010s, when I was working in R&D, I was told we needed to start applying Lean. It was a short-lived exercise in futility. There was no organizational or leadership will, and the name was a turn-off. I've come to better understand Lean from reading about the auto industry

I view the purpose of many processes to overcoming a natural tendency toward bad behavior, knowingly or unknowingly. People like to work on what they're good at or find fun, not necessarily on what's needed. There is a natural tendency to control information to gain power. Collaboration requires sharing recognition, assuming a job well done. Decision-making is hard. Lean is a catchall for doing these things and more well.  Not a bad concept.