Humility

8/16/2010

I have recently been engaged in a conversation with colleagues in APICS about Lean. Some terrific thoughts have been presented by many people. I came across two brilliant quotes provided by Chris R. Deans CPA CPIM CIRM of LeanTech International Consulting based in Shanghai and Nanjing.
On the subject of "Humility" Mark Twain is credited to have said that " it is the one characteristic that as soon as you think you have it, you don't."
Taking that notion into the field of Lean, Chris Deans says, " Lean is not a destination but a journey and the minute you believe your enterprise has arrived is actually the instant you have lost it".
Thanks, Chris. I couldn't have said it better myself!

1 Comment

Stephen Hodgson

9/8/2010 04:38:42 am

Bang on.

To often Lean is thought of as JIT, which is thought of as trucks arriving at the perfect time (instead of takt time, pull and flow). I think most of time we focus on the tools (5s, andon, etc,) but if you've read Ohno you know that the tools are just that - tools.

The real secret is in the culture made up of caring, ambitious employees who are dedicated to continous improvement.

They are more than a pair of hands and strive to solve problems and get to the root cause of issues (using a tool, like say an A3 report).

Now if we could stop striving to find the cheapest pair of hands to do the work and start thinking about whats driving those hands we might just be better off..

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