Lean and Problem Solving
Like most successful management concepts, Lean Manufacturing has taken on a life of its own, with many ideas being included under the Lean banner. What started as a well-intentioned, focused approach to improvement ballooned into a monster that has to be fed with countless consultants and internal resources.
Remember the “Quality” movement in the 1980s and early 90s? While it started off in many companies as very centered around product quality, it quickly mushroomed to encompass any company initiative. A colleague of ours at the time ran a training program called “The Quality Practice”. When we asked him why that name, he explained with a question: “Who would ever cut The Quality Practice?”. Enough said.
One of the more common misconceptions we hear is that Lean is a problem-solving tool. Maybe it is more appropriate to say problem solving is a Lean tool. Lean’s stated objective is to eliminate waste in the manufacturing process to preserve or add value to the customer. With a broad objective like that, it is easy to see why just about everything is included in the Lean toolbox. 5S? Sure, that eliminates waste by organizing the workplace and standardizing workstations. Value Stream Mapping? Yeah, that can help identify spots in the manufacturing process where value is and is not being added. Kaizen? Who could be opposed to continuous improvement?
And of course problem solving fits in the toolbox. Deviations from what should be happening cause wasted time, material and labor. And they definitely do not preserve or add value for the customer. So companies that have bought into Lean Manufacturing are interested in fixing problems quickly to avoid waste. Unfortunately, in their haste, they sometimes create more waste by not identifying the root cause of the problem. Without this, they are implementing fixes that might or might not alleviate the problem. Highly effective problem-solving companies take the time to get to the root cause of a problem because they know that is how they will save time. Ironic, isn’t it?
We like to explain the Lean/Problem Solving relationship this way: Lean is an objective and problem solving is one of the key ways to meet the objective. One issue we have with some Lean programs is the sheer breadth of scope of problem solving tools. We have seen some that have four or five problem-solving approaches. This means that employees have to learn a number of different processes and communicate which process they are using on a specific problem. This can cause waste through miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Another tenet of Lean where we have a bit of a gripe is the idea that every problem requires that a cross-functional team identify the root cause of the problem. While this can be important on a process problem, we have seen many problems that are confined to a single machine that can be solved effectively by the operator and maybe someone from engineering. Assembling a cross-functional team in this case would be overkill and wasteful. Also, the need to assemble a large team to focus on a problem sometimes indicates a poor problem definition that needs to be refined.
We are all for anything that helps manufacturers improve performance and compete more effectively. In creating a Lean Manufacturing environment, the company should understand what problem-solving process will be used, how it will be used and by whom to make sure the problem solving is truly value added and does not cause more issues.