One of the problems with Lean applications, Six Sigma, Kaizen, 5-S, etc., is that they get applied without an adequate understanding of the target business. The result is a failure of the tool to “take”, and any improvements gained are short lived. Within a few days, things start sliding back to what the “normal” used to be.

The missing step is a readiness assessment. A thorough understanding of the business and its culture must be coupled with a thorough understanding of the Lean tool being used, in order to provide the best chance of success. This readiness assessment takes time to develop, requires good listening skills, and business acumen.

I worked with a business recently that wanted me to lead a Kaizen event at one of their facilities. As part of the agreement, I asked for time to do a readiness assessment before plans were finalized for the event. What I found were two fatal problem areas. First, the management culture was top down, command and control. The employees felt very little empowerment and the senior management team agreed with that assessment. Second, the employees at the target facility did not know what Kaizen was and were only vaguely aware that “some kind of event” was going to take place.

I advised that the senior leadership involved at the targeted facility be trained in shifting from a supervisory management approach to a leadership model of management. I also advised that all employees at the facility be trained in what Kaizen is and what it would mean to them.

These adjustments took three months to complete, at which time I did another readiness assessment. This time all that needed changed was the Kaizen strategy. It needed to be tuned to the targeted business and culture. So we were ready to go, right?

Right! But with one significant development. Of the 10 items that senior management had on their list of needed improvements, only 2 remained.  The other 8 corrected themselves naturally through cultural change and the training that had taken place. Little did this business know that they had just gone through a 3 month Kaizen event that changed both processes and culture.

Here is the clincher. This whole three month process only required about 8 hours of my time as a consultant. The business itself did the heavy lifting. It doesn’t always work out this way, but given the opportunity, most businesses will at least try to make necessary adjustments.  If they don’t, nothing you can do as a consultant will make a difference anyway.