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Developing Lean Skills for Future Transformations

Jim Womack, chairman and founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, recently cautioned the Lean Community against deviating from its lean transformation plans during times of crisis. He wrote the following to lean practitioners in Australia and New Zealand last month,

“In the current global economic crisis the great temptation is to abandon long-term plans for temporary measures. And the temporary measure managers often choose first is to slash travel, training, and conferences while pulling up the drawbridge and looking inward until the storm passes. But the history of the lean movement shows clearly that this is exactly the wrong way to proceed.”

Jim’s advice to organizations took a page out of Toyota’s lean transformation handbook and cited actions the company took during times of economic distress. He provided the following advice to companies thinking about curtailing lean activities,

“The biggest lean leaps -- building the foundations for long term growth -- have been taken in times of economic distress. This was clearly the case for Toyota during the economic collapse of 1950 in Japan and for the firms I profiled in Lean Thinking in 1996, which were all motivated to pursue a lean transformation by the recession of 1991. However, to make these leaps most organizations need to hone their skills and to gain courage from talking with other organizations further along the path.”

Despite the crisis -- indeed, because of the economic crisis -- organizations need to keep their focus on building the necessary lean skills, attitudes, and behaviors for success over the long term. Efforts to continually broaden your lean knowledge and sharpen the skills of your organization’s most important asset, its workforce, should not be curtailed during times of economic uncertainty. Just the opposite reaction may be most effective, especially where the workload on employees has lessened. Aid for Training

State and federal training programs provide access to workforce development funds for both individuals and businesses. Most of the funding flows through state labor or

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economic development departments and agencies. A good place to start is the U.S. Department of Labor’s “One-Stop Career Center System” at: http://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/onestop/onestopmap.cfm The interactive map connects you to state websites and other organizations offering training programs and other skill development resources. State funding and, more recently, federal Economic Recovery dollars are available to businesses that would like to send workers to lean training courses or bring lean training programs to their work sites. Here are two examples of state workforce development programs: Massachusetts’ Workforce Training Fund: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=elwdtopic&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Businesses&L2=Workforce+Training+Fund+(WTF)&sid=Elwd provides training to individuals and business. As a result of Round 29 awards, over 40% of the training grants awarded to businesses were used to support the development of lean skills. Michigan’s Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) administers workforce training funds through its Economic Development Job Training (EDJT) program http://www.themedc.org/ Please check out the website link for your state to locate workforce development programs, funding, and other resources. If you have any questions about the availability of training funds in your area please drop us a line at jodonnell@lean.org Resources LEI runs regional workshops on basic and more advanced lean tools. You can read complete descriptions of workshop content with the latest dates and locations on the education page: http://www.leaninstitute.org/Workshops/WorkshopCalendar.cfm

We also run seminars for managers, deployment leaders, and senior managers that help them develop the leadership behaviors that sustain lean enterprises: http://www.leaninstitute.org/Workshops/ Visit the LEI product catalog to see the workbooks, books, training kits, videos, and other resources available for supporting lean transformations: http://www.leaninstitute.org/BookStore/ProductCatalog.cfm Learn about creating lean enterprises at the next Lean Transformation Summit. http://www.leaninstitute.org/Summits/