The perspectives of the Lean Transformation Framework

1. What is your issue from a customer perspective? Who are your customers? What does customer demand look like, both qualitatively and quantitatively? What complaints are you getting?
2. What processes do you want to improve?
3. What skills do you want to develop in employees and managers?
4. What management system do you need to make sure this works well?
5. How do you build and perpetuate an improvement culture?

These are guiding questions that help shape a Lean pathway or Lean transformation. We describe these in an A3 (on one A3 paper the complete plan of action for a transformation).

1. What is your issue from a customer perspective?

In it, we gain insight into the following questions: Who are your customers? What does customer demand look like, both qualitatively and quantitatively? What patterns do we see? What complaints are you getting from customers? Which products or services are running the fastest? And why is that?

Here we use different methodologies like Gemba walks in branches, visit customers, map customer journeys, organize customer arenas, go incognito to use your services and products ('Mystery Shopper'), conduct interviews and pretend to be an order and follow the whole process ('Staple yourself to an order').

2. What processes or issues do you want to improve (what does it bring value to your customers)?

Depending on the type of issue, we start working with structured problem solving (Problem Solving) or by organizing a Kaizen event. With a team of people, we improve one or more processes from aspects such as quality, lead time, productivity and, of course, safety and sustainability. But it can also be a completely new process that we develop, design and realize from scratch. Here, we naturally use concepts such as flow, leveling and pull to cleverly and effectively shape new or improved processes. But also Design Thinking, Agile, Scrum, Lean Egineering, Lean Product & Process Development and many other concepts.

3. What skills do you want to develop in employees and managers?

Of course, we work primarily on the development of people, both in their own profession and in improving working methods and processes. For this we use methods such as a skills matrix and organizational matrix. And how many of what skills do we need to be able to respond flexibly to our customer demand? We use the Training Within Industry concept to develop the necessary skills in different areas. Of course, we also train people in Lean courses and coach people on the job so that they can make many more improvements with the knowledge and experience they have gained!

 4. What management system do you need to make this work well?

A process works better when it is also well managed. We work with Strategy Deployment to properly translate the various objectives practically to each level in the organization. Methods such as Catchball, True North and A3 help shape this. With visual boards (both physical and digital) we steer the improvements and processes, see deviations and can jointly determine and test countermeasures. In addition, we determine how to ensure that every employee knows if he or she is having a successful day, and how they can contribute to this themselves. By doing regular gemba walks, we stay well connected to the day-to-day and make the connection to the developments we aspire to and realize!

5. How do you build and perpetuate an improvement culture?

Developing a Lean mindset is no easy task, and requires persistence and the creation of new routines. We work on this, for example, by organizing a Lean Wave with which we help teams shape their own way of working, and learn to really get to work on improvement in daily practice. Placing responsibility low down in the organization thus becomes a reality. With management teams we regularly go on study visits to other organizations, visit appealing examples, meet leaders and experts in their field. In this way we organize inspiration, experience and the willpower and stamina to tackle difficult times with a positive attitude and help your organization move forward.

Want to learn more about what we can do for you in terms of Lean consultancy? Then click here.

Want to learn more about the Lean Transformation Framework? Then watch this video.

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