Achieving success with increasing turnover and decreasing costs
A successful Lean project starts with value creation at the executive board level, not with a value stream analysis in the production department.
Too many Lean projects do not create enough value because they start in the wrong place. You need to start at the top. And you, being the manager, are the one to choose the level of ambition for the company.
You should be aware that, if you use Lean to increase efficiency in different areas of the company, you will often obtain increases in productivity but not a step change in the value that your customers experience.
However, if your ambition is to separate your company from competitors in the market, the process must start with the question: ” How do we create even more value for the customers?” What must drive the whole Lean project are the visions and the strategy for maximising the value that customers get from the company’s products - and this is a process that starts at the top.
If you want your company to create a unique combination between growth and profitability, you need to focus on the customer and the value which you create for the customer.
If you wish to obtain profitable growth and use Lean to obtain that objective, the challenge is great but not impossible. To obtain significant results with Lean requires six steps:
1. Determine the company’s ambitions
2. Define customer value
3. Focus and prioritise value streams
4. Draw up the plan
5. Kaikaku (radical improvements)
6. Kaizen (successive development).
Read more in PA Consulting Group’s publication 'Lean starts at the top!'. Click here to download the publication (PDF – 3165 Kb). Please note that this publication is written in Danish.
