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Lean not mindless cost cutting

Business experts have suggested that one of the biggest mistakes that company innovators can make is to see lean thinking as a tool to mindlessly cut costs.

Through their book ‘Misunderstandings About Value-Stream Mapping, Flow Analysis and Takt Time’ John Shook and Mike Rother also said that this approach to lean fundamentally misses the point of the practice which is create value by removing waste.

Shook and Rother claim that as businesses improve their production processes they should look to reallocating resources to new works which will generate value rather than concentrating on cutting the costs of one single process.

They also warned companies who are interested in innovation not to implement elements of lean thinking or specific lean tools without first trying to accurately understand the system in which they fit.

The authors said that companies should look to constantly implement lean thinking - the more that lean is used the more challenges for improvement are uncovered.

Don’t be afraid to keep going back to the drawing board to look at a new ideas even the challenges you are addressing are the result of lean improvements themselves.

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