The 8-Step Model
So, what is Lean Foundations®?
Lean Foundations® is a comprehensive approach to the leadership and management of a manufacturing facility. It is specifically designed to resolve the three common problems of poor workplace happiness, poor operational performance, and an inability to implement Lean.
If you work in manufacturing, you're likely to recognise these three common problems, and no doubt hope that there is a solution. We believe that Lean Foundations® has the answer.
We know from extensive experience that many manufacturing organisations are structured and function in such a way that they negatively impact the intrinsic motivators of their team members. They operate in a way that adversely impacts every team member’s desire to have a sense of purpose, to be part of a team, to work autonomously and with accountability, and to be successful and improve both personally and as part of a group.
And, we believe that many factories suffer from the same three common but critical factors which cause this impact, and which therefore result in the three common problems...
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they fail to embrace organisational health and effective teamwork,
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they are unable to engage with empowered front-line team members,
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and they lack a well-functioning management system.
The Lean Foundations® approach addresses these critical factors by combining popular management theory with real-world practical advice and solutions in a clearly structured 8-Step model.
STEP
1
Embrace organisational health to enable teamwork...
Step 1 helps us to understand organisational health and effective teamwork, and how to introduce it into any facility. By building a psychologically safe environment, enabling teamwork through trust and healthy conflict, and embracing inspirational purpose and direction, the first fundamental building block of improvement can be laid.
Build a team-oriented organisation structure...
Step 2 shares how to develop your organisation structure in order to facilitate and encourage teamwork. It addresses the need for all key functions and roles to be filled, for ensuring that you have the right people on-board, and for organising them so that they can work effectively with one another as a team.
STEP
2
STEP
3
Align everyone with policy deployment...
Step 3 encourages you to align your entire team with a clear and consistent improvement plan. By utilising a well-defined policy deployment process that combines A3 and X-Matrix tools to great effect, it ensures that everyone is pulling in the same direction, and gets the improvement process really motoring.
Infuse with leadership that empowers...
Step 4 helps us to understand how to lead through the empowerment of others. It demonstrates how you can invigorate a sense of ownership and responsibility throughout your team, and how you can alleviate the burden of making every decision and solving every problem yourself. With the empowerment of your team, any improvement journey is injected with a real sense of urgency and enthusiasm.
STEP
4
STEP
5
Manage performance daily, and with discipline...
Step 5 supports the creation and implementation of a rigorous and disciplined daily management process. With the introduction of standard format whiteboards and meeting structures, and supported by the activities of all of the other 8-Steps, the daily management process can provide the vital energy and discipline that any improvement process requires. It underpins the mentality of small but continuous steps forward .
Embed a problem-solving mentality...
Step 6 helps you to embed a problem-solving mentality within your team. It explores how you can encourage your team members to feel comfortable raising problems, and provides you with mechanisms for enabling your team to solve problems effectively. By building a team that can problem-solve independently, any improvement process gathers momentum as issues are resolved by everyone, and not just a select few.
STEP
6
STEP
7
Step 7 encourages you to establish an effective management system. By standardising processes and procedures, performance is stabilised. And by introducing robust management protocols with routine meeting structures and audit processes, you can lead with oversight and support rather than instruction. This step reduces your need to fire-fight and gives everyone the capacity to improve.
Establish an effective management system...
Actively engage everyone...
Step 8 enables you to engage with the people who know your processes and problems the best - your front-line team members. It provides a clear understanding of what engagement really means, and how you can about encouraging it. Engagement is the final piece of the improvement puzzle, and can help you to create genuine workplace happiness for your entire team.