In our experience, this is perhaps the most important and challenging part for any company. With the launch of any new initiative, there is a lot of buzz that gets generated. The momentum continues for some time with many success stories across the company with some significant results. While this may bode well initially, unless, a conscious effort is undertaken by the leadership team to continuously challenge the team to strive for new heights, sustenance becomes questionable.
An interesting fact is that Toyota, the pioneer of Lean systems is still striving for perfection even after so many decades. It is indeed a fact that seeking perfection is a journey and not a destination.
Companies worldwide continuously face new challenges; market share erosion, emerging technologies replacing work, offshoring to name a few. Unless companies constantly stay focused to meet those challenges, survival long-term becomes questionable.
We at True North Solutions can help guide the teams with a focus on self-sustenance that would include
(a) helping the team visualize an ideal state VSM that could radically change the way the business operates with elimination of wasteful activities as well as digitalization.
(b) developing/coaching new Lean ‘senseis'(teachers) for spearheading lean digital initiatives for long-term
(c) setting up a Kaizen promotion office(KPO) which is a central function that can help facilitate the company’s Kaizen events/digital projects and share best practices for speedy proliferation of kaizen activities in one division to across divisions instead of ‘re-inventing the wheel’
(d) collaborating with the leadership on introducing digital tools that enable inclusive leadership, eg: Collaborative workspaces, collective intelligence, etc.
Estimated time duration for this phase:
We will send a questionnaire to the client upon business award. The client would send the completed questionnaire, preferably, 2 weeks before the start of the work. This will help us to understand (a) details of the business, (b) unique challenges and (c) the current exposure/maturity of Lean understanding within the organization.
Note: An NDA would be signed upfront, the timing of which could be during the initial consultation visit.