One aspect of Lean Management has had surprisingly little publicity and I cannot help wondering, "Why not?" Is it possible that the potential has not been recognised?
Of course I am talking about its green factor – its potential to assist the green movement.
Think about it for a moment. Lean Management (or "Lean" as it now often more often called) is a wider application of Lean Manufacturing or Lean Production: a production practice that considers it wasteful to use resources for any purpose other than the creation of value for the end customer, and treats anything that does not comply as such. In this context, "value" means any action or process that a customer would pay for willingly. Thus, whether for a manufacturing or a service organisation, this entails reducing or eliminating waste – anything that fails this basic test.
Waste has been broadly divided into a number of broad categories:
- Overproduction
- Unnecessary transportation or movement
- Inventory which can be, although is not necessarily, the result of over-production.
- Defects & breakdown
- Over-processing
- Waiting or delays
- Poor or wrong information (and bad decisions)
- Danger or safety hazards
- Inefficiency through use of wrong materials or tools or poor training
The list is not necessarily exhaustive, but each category can use a significant amount of the earth's resources and/or have an impact on the environment. Consequently they are green credentials and thus need to more active championing by environmentalists and policy-makers.
"Green" has become synonymous with sustainability, but there is in fact much more to sustainability than just safeguarding the environment. And this is where "Lean" really comes into its own. Each of these categories affects an organisation's bottom line and hence its exposure to risk and its ultimate sustainability or long-tem economic and commercial success. Focusing on them inevitably drives continuous improvement which stimulates a virtuous cycle with further enhanced sustainability.
Yet, the effectiveness across all the categories is ultimately dependent on people. That is why "latent skill", or the failure to recognise the potential of people to make a greater contribution, has recently been recognised as a further category of waste. You, of course, know that is what I call "human economic waste" and that it was to eliminate this that I formed Zealise. But I don't think even I realised its impact on sustainability and just how green this makes my credentials!