Building a New Version

Use tools and techniques to build relationships in the extended value stream (e.g. joint projects with customers and/or suppliers using lean tools/methods)

Practitioners: Strategic

One of my first experiences with this concept was with a large global manufacturer and one of our customers. The idea came from a conversation between two sponsors. One from our organization and one from the customer. The executive vice president of our customer noticed our production system tools and methods in our processes and became curious about it. Through the conversation, the request was made for assistance implementing their own new version and by chance I was available and close by for the assignment.

Over the next three years we taught, trained, and implemented nearly every tool in the operational excellence book. We moved through eleven plants in the United States and then on to seventeen plants in Europe. The result was an incredible improvement in all those plants and a flourishing manufacturing footprint. We made the rounds over and over, implementing and improving not just the business processes, but the tools themselves.

Building a New Version

That is the story of lean from its beginnings. I have seen lean fail because the practitioner thinks there is only one way, a recipe of sorts. I do not practice this thinking. Every organization is different. The way lean looks here will not look the same as it does there. Too many variables exist that require modification. One of my client executives coined a phrase for sharing best practices that illustrates this wonderfully. He stated to his teams that when we bring best practices to you, we want to offer you the opportunity to learn from someone else’s efforts. One you have explored what they did at their location, you should then choose to adopt, adapt, or abandon their ideas. The bottom line is simply this. If you are challenged by the same problem, then find a way to address it.

By conducting projects with our extended value stream (including customers and suppliers) we can raise the level of value for everyone. That is how benefit spreads everywhere. If there is no increase in value somewhere, there is no increase in benefit anywhere. The ways in which we go about finding value should not be limited to the confines of our ‘four walls’.