One of the biggest challenges in transforming an organization into a truly Lean organization is to change its typical reflexes in coping with problems. The way in which organizations deal with problems is predictive of the extent to which they will be able to embrace Lean thinking and doing. If organizations – and particularly their management teams – show important signs of beating about the bush, they probably will have difficulty in becoming Lean.
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This post was triggered by a post that Harish Jose wrote on purposeful and purposive entities in systems thinking (see: The purpose of purposeful entities in purposive systems). In that post, an autonomous entity was defined as an entity that has freedom of choice and is free to make its own rules. This triggered me, as autonomy has always been a key concept in the Lean organizations that I have worked for and with. But there, it never meant that these teams or departments would be free to make their own rules; were free to make their own laws. So, what do we mean by “autonomous”, and why pursue it?
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One of the basic concepts in Lean thinking, if not thé underlying concept, is the concept of “waste”. A recent discussion on LinkedIn made me rethink the way in which I treat this important notion when working on improvements with client teams. The discussion centered around the translation of the word “muda” meaning “unnecessary”, and whether this should be the criterion for labeling an activity as “waste”. In my work I do look at “necessary” vs “unnecessary” but I do not consider it the main criterion for identifying targets for improvement, thereby lowering cost and reducing lead times. I will try to explain my standpoint in this post.
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