Lean isn't for everyone all the time

In last week's post, I referred to waiting as one of the seven wastes in Lean. This got me thinking about the challenges faced by service industries when they are seeking continuous improvement opportunities. It is true that there are times when the principles laid out by Toyota and the countless other Lean thinkers may just not work so well. That is perfectly okay. A counterproductive effort is the very antithesis of Lean so if the shoe doesn't fit, don't try to wear it.

In the same Special Report that I cited last week, we are told that minimizing process variability reduces errors and improves quality - the key to optimization. But would going Lean be a proper way to run a fire department? It's definitely inefficient to pay a bunch of firefighters 24 hours a day when the majority of their time is spent NOT fighting fires but would we be any better off if they were constantly busy and the fire fighting equipment was functioning at its capacity? The variability in this business involves the incidence of fires and that is simply going to remain uncontrolled, no matter how efficient the response to them might be.

Any time a business involves more service than tangible product, Lean is more challenging to fit. The customer is more integrated with the product and that complicates matters in a way that will be unique to each person. Any kind of personal selling involves a customized approach, whether that means your customer has their mind made up in advance or they want you to walk them through every potential option. If a process of selling is pre-planned, it's going to be difficult to hold to an allocated amount of time to make a sale if the customer wants to discuss some aspect of the product at length.

The following video has been shared on countless Lean forums and blogs. It helps us to remember that if there is no good reason behind the apparent "improvements," you will struggle to gain the support of the staff you are exposing to the so-called enhancement. Mark Graban explains the concept of Lean vs. L.A.M.E. (Lean as Mistakenly Explained or Lean as Misguidedly Executed) and is also the creator of this video, posted at his blog, leanblog.org.