Pulling teams aside to engage in short intervals of identification and implementation of important process #improvements is indisputably foundational to organizational #efficiency, cost management and long-term #competitiveness.
Why wouldn’t an organization engage in incremental process changes that give effect to sustained high levels of efficiency or #kaizen as we refer to it in #Lean? Seems like a rational reasonable approach to good business #management; but guess what, it is hardly practiced unless something goes wrong or for that matter is anticipated to go wrong. For some strange reason a large percentage of organizations seemingly are cultured to engage in reactive crisis management.
Approaching business with the idea that everything can be improved or is always in need of #improvement is a powerful best management concept for achieving high #performance and more importantly eliminating waste.
Of note, wasted organizational resources are often irrecoverable and where the opportunity to recover and regain them is pursued, it is typically at an additional or higher cost. Let’s not argue about it, waste is a lost opportunity to exploit further opportunity. It is a misuse that may never be fully appreciated, having never been given the opportunity to be part of a transformative value-added process.
Isn't it true that the big question practically every organization is asking, especially in this challenging economic era is, “what did we waste yesterday that we desperately need today”? Yet further, “what did we waste yesterday that could have been yielding value for us today”?
Vital therefore to the right functioning of today’s institutions, if they are to be of value to tomorrow’s needs, is the inculcation of a culture of “Lean Thinking and Management”. A culture that manages business and organizational affairs to eradicate factors that waste important resources; a culture that’s driven by a commitment to improve what was just improved and continuously improve what was just improved.