Lean management is known to be a very positive factor in the work of many organizations. And yet, many leaders seem largely unaware of its positive implications and don’t understand why they need it in their organizations in the first place. And while it’s true that the exact benefits of lean management can be a bit difficult to point out at a glance, it’s not actually that complicated once you dig in a little.
- Improved Efficiency
One of the most noticeable effects you’re going to see over any period of time is an increase in the overall efficiency of the organization. This can be reflected in various points of its work, depending on how you’re measuring success and progress in the first place. But any way you cut it, efficiency is going to be on an upward trend soon after integrating lean management into your company.
This is easy to measure with various tools, and doing so is actually crucial for the long-term success of your organization. In-depth analytics and evaluation of the company’s work are going to prove critical for its performance in the future, and you’ll want to get these points sorted out as quickly as possible if you haven’t already.
- Better Quality Control
Quality control is directly tied to productivity in most circumstances, but it’s not very easy to improve one without affecting the other. When working under lean management, you’ll quickly realize that quality control will become one of the top priorities of the organization as a whole, and something everyone will be striving for on different levels.
And when you’ve improved the quality control within the company, you’ll inevitably get to a stage where you produce less waste. But more on that below.
- A More Personal Approach
Lean management is frequently associated with a more personal approach to professional development and growth, and there’s a good reason for that it just works. A good lean manager will know when it’s time to get down on the level of the common employee so they can get a better overview of their current concerns with the organization.
This is something that requires some level of humility though, and it’s not something that every leader is capable of right off the bat.
- Reduced Waste
Waste is a big problem for many organizations. But what’s more problematic for some of them is that they may not even realize that they have any issues in this regard in the first place. This is especially common in industries where waste is treated as a part of the standard way things work.
This kind of mindset can not only be very harmful, but it can be difficult to defeat if it’s already deeply entrenched in the organization. Waste reduction can be approached in many different ways, depending on the specific work of the company, but it’s something that has to be taken very seriously by people on all levels.
- Better Morale
It’s no secret that lean organizations tend to enjoy higher levels of employee satisfaction. Do you know why though? It’s not actually that hard to point out some potential reasons for this phenomenon, looking at the typical lean company out there. Promoting a better interaction between employees and their managers can obviously improve the way both see each other, and can lead to better trust and more openness.
That, in turn, will inevitably lead to better productivity across the board, while also improving employee morale on an individual level, as well as across entire teams.
- Strong Future Prospects
Lean is one of the hottest topics right now. And that doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Quite on the contrary, as more and more people keep discovering the benefits of lean management, we’re likely going to see even more organizations jumping on board of this trend and adopting these principles in their own work.
And that’s a great thing for everyone. Especially companies that make it a point to adopt lean methodologies in their work early on. Those who pay attention to these trends right now will be in a much better position in the near future, and when the whole market revolves around lean methodologies, these companies will already be in leading positions in their own respective fields.
Nitish Kumar Patidar
I am interested to join webinar on lean management.
Brion Hurley
We don’t have a current lean management webinar, but we have some training slides and content in our Toyota Floor Management Development System program