Lean times need lean thinking!

Lean thinking offers a unique way to improve your business performance.  Through its focus on value and the elimination of waste, in all its forms, it can radically improve your business, whatever sector you  are in.

If you have heard that lean is only applicable in manufacturing organisations, consider this.  Whether you are buying a hamburger in McDonalds or enjoying the benefits of the congestion control systems on our motorways, you are seeing lean in action. 

Lean is a revolutionary business philosophy requiring you to completely rethink the way you do things.  In essence, at first lean can feel counter-intuitive.  It challenges conventional management practices and questions the way you run your business.  When applied correctly however, you will see it will transform your organisation.

If this sounds interesting then now is the time to begin the journey to lean transformation.

What is Leading4Lean?

Leading4Lean has been developed for organisations who feel they are ready to introduce lean principles in  their business.  It ensures that managers, supervisors and team leaders feel they are capable of developing a lean strategy and have the necessary technical and leadership skills to deliver it.

It sees that all employees have the necessary problem solving skills through training in Business Improvement Techniques (BIT).  This can be carried out on your premises or at a local venue.

Can my organisation benefit from Leading4Lean?

If you are a small to medium sized company who wish to introduce Lean Thinking, do not have the necessary in-house skills to deliver it but wish to avoid the prohibitive costs of external consultants, then Leading4Lean is designed for you.

What results can I expect?

Since lean gained acceptance in Japan in the early 70's, thousands of businesses across the world have undergone a radical transformation.  Typically, manufacturing companies who implement lean can expect to see:

• Productivity increases by 50 - 100%
• Production lead times reduce by 90%
• Inventories reduce by 90%
• Space requirement reduces by 50%
• A dramatic improvement in bottom line profits and customer service.
• Employees feel more empowered as people are engaged at every level

In service businesses and the public sector, similar improvements in productivity and processing times can be expected.

These are not just generalisations, we have seen it happen, time and time again (see case study)

Why Leading and not just Lean?

Businesses are constantly seeking to improve performance, often by improving the quality of management.  This usually means sending key managers & supervisors on management & leadership courses. 

Whilst this is useful, unless it is aligned to a specific business strategy, it often fails.  As one team leader said;

"We learned to respect each other and wanted to work together in teams, but we were all revved up with nowhere to go."

Lean thinking offers you that direction.  It is profoundly corrosive of hierarchy, however and requires a specific set of leadership skills and management style if it is to succeed.  Most lean transitions fail because the managers and supervisors feel threatened by it, seeing it as a loss of control.

Leading4Lean addresses this by helping managers, supervisors & team leaders feel they have the necessary leadership and technical skills to manage and own the lean conversion.

So what are you selling?

Leading4lean is a combination of lean training, leadership training and practical workshops where managers, supervisors and team leaders design, develop and deliver the transformation programme.  To give you peace of mind, we support you throughout the lean transformation.

It engages all your employees through the BIT training which is project based ensuring you get a return on the time you invest in your employees.

How much will it cost me?

As you would expect, the cost is dependent on the size of your business, your current knowledge of lean and the competency of your managers & supervisors.  The major cost incurred is the structured training programme to get you on the lean journey.  Thankfully, you will see this is charged at competitive training rates rather than consultancy rates.

Typically, for the average small to medium sized company, training for lean thinking is up to 8 days with a further 8 days for lean leadership training. To avoid disruptions to your business, this can be staged over a period of 8 months.  The BIT training runs concurrently with the manager & supervisor training programme.

Overall, you will see that the programme is self-funding since the savings you will make through the lean implementation will far exceed the training costs incurred.

If this is too much for your business at prersent, alterantively a three day course introducing lean tools and techniques will give you sufficient skills to make a substantiial improvement in your business performance.

What guarantee do you offer?

If after the Leading4Lean programme you do not realise the benefits identified in the lean analysis within 12 months of completing the program, we will fully refund the training costs.

What do I do next?

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...'

                                             Lao-tzu (604BC - 531BC)

To receive further information and a free lean training video, don't delay, please contact us now by telephone or email at: