The five principles
- Value: define it from the customer's point of view.
- Value stream: map every step that delivers it and remove the ones that do not add value.
- Flow: make the remaining steps run without interruption, waiting or batching.
- Pull: produce only what the next step or the customer asks for.
- Perfection: repeat, because every improvement reveals the next waste.
Lean tools
5S, visual management, standard work, kanban, SMED, total productive maintenance, poka-yoke, value stream mapping, A3 and PDCA. The tools are well documented; on their own they produce a tidy site that slides back within a year.
Lean management routines
What distinguishes lean management from lean tools is the management system that runs every day:
- Tiered daily meetings that review performance against plan and raise problems.
- Leader standard work that puts leaders at the gemba on a schedule.
- Standard work and layered audits that hold the baseline.
- Structured problem solving that fixes causes rather than symptoms.
- Strategy deployment that connects the daily measures to the organisation's goals.
Lean management beyond manufacturing
The same system runs in healthcare, logistics, construction, utilities and offices. The waste looks different (waiting for approvals, rework of documents, searching for information) but the routines are the same.
Where to start
Not with the tools. Start with one area, a tier board with a few measures, a daily meeting at a fixed time and a leader who walks the floor. Add standard work when the process is stable enough to standardise, and problem solving when the board shows the same problem twice.