Cracking The Lean Code

Lean cannot be a replication exercise. Aspirant organisations need to fully understand the scope of lean, the variables that are applicable to them in particular, and chalk out a strategy that would bring in additional value.

- Sanjeev Baitmangalkar 

It is four decades since university professors and researchers have been studying Toyota and trying to understand what they do and how. Toyota was the mother of efficiency innovation yet contributing to economy, growth, and jobs. Today, those studies have been documented into books. The mistake most make is in trying to copy the templates and hence fail, whereas what works is in applying the thinking. There has been an oversupply of seminars, training, and masterclasses. Almost everyone has heard about lean manufacturing and claim varied degree of expertise; many claim to be doing it, some even claim to have become ‘lean’! Why then are we yet to see a product-maker (OEM) replicate Toyota or Mysore Kirloskar? Why do all lean claimants fall short of being truly lean? Let us revisit the fundamentals to know...

Markets everywhere are witnessing the trends of customer empowerment, mass customisation, and disruption. These trends have made products better, more customer-centric, cost-effective and even changed the way businesses are conducted. Lesser lead times for product introductions, shorter product life cycles, fluctuating demand, varying share of businesses, just-in-time (JIT) supplies, and expectance of price reductions annually have characterised business over the past decades and are here to stay.