Manufacturers Go Lean and Green
Industry Week has released its annual survey of U.S. manufacturers and the results show one thing unequivocally: American manufacturers are going lean. 70% of survey respondents reported lean manufacturing initiatives at their plants. The next most popular improvement methodology, Total Quality Management, was adopted at half that rate.
Lean may be way out in front in terms of adoption, but that doesn't mean manufacturers can agree on what lean is supposed to accomplish. Respondents reported a wide variety of expectations, with many companies claiming that "lean's main benefits come from cutting costs." But that's a mistake, according to James Womack, the founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute. He claims that, instead, the lean system is for "organizing and managing employees, suppliers, customer relationships, product development, production and the overall enterprise."
Point well taken. Still the number of companies citing 'low cost' as their primary focus increased this year. Focus on product variety and customization decreased, while interest in "green manufacturing" as a strategic practice was up 11.2%.
If this spike in lean manufacturing, with little corresponding understanding of what lean actually accomplishes, sounds a little like a fad to you, you're in good company. In an accompanying article in Industry Week, Charlie Garrard, a senior partner at Stroud Consulting, calls lean "the latest fad," and insists that companies need to break out of "the flavor of the month syndrome." Leaders, Garrard believes, need to learn "that the magic bullet doesn't exist, and that trying to copy what works for today's successful companies will not be the "cure all" that gurus promote."