Lean Implementation Goals and Objectives

The objectives and drivers of implementing a lean production system are to achieve a competitive advantage through cost reduction and efficient service of customer demands. Kaizen initiatives or blitzes are an effective way of establishing improvement goals or gathering ideas for improvements. Many organizations face challenges within their operations and supply chains in achieving this, and will find that implementing a lean productive system is not only about cutting costs or improving customer satisfaction, but also involve changing company culture and adopting a unified team approach. This is where organizations sometimes fail in creating a sustainable lean organization.

The organization that embarks on adopting a lean culture and lean manufacturing process can do so with the aid of consultants and leanmanufacturing training and education. The organization should have among its goals the following:

–Eliminate waste within the organization, this refers to all types of waste including downtime, sometimes referred to as the seven types of waste.

–Reduce costs within its operations, not only in production but also office and administrative expenses.

–Improve Customer satisfaction; this should be the main driver of implementing lean, as differentiation through customer service can be a powerful competitive advantage. This can be achieved through reduction in lead times, increase in product and service quality and price competitiveness.

It is important to use the SMART goal setting framework to establish the goals of the organization relating to the goals above as every business and operation will be different.

If an organization is able to achieve these three main goals it will truly have a competitive advantage in the marketplace that will enable it to achieve above average industry returns. Achieving it is not easy and this site aims to provide the knowledge and examples on how to achieve this.