Behaviour and Engagement of Employees – The Most Vital Ingredients Needed to Create a LEAN Business?

Organisations are realising that to implement Lean manufacturing principles across the board and sustain it for the future that behaviour and engagement of all employees needs to be addressed thoroughly and is a gradual process. Indeed this “below the water” element of the Lean iceberg is now becoming the most focused area of attention for senior level management, as CEO of Cogent Power, Marcel, stated that “to achieve waste elimination and continuous improvement, the organisation as a whole needs to have the attitude, the culture and capabilities at all levels to achieve continuous improvement and sustain itself for the future.”
Common concerns include questions centred on feelings such as “How long is it going to be before the workforce loses their Harvard Lean enthusiasm for lean? And “How do you get the buy in from staff when implementing lean principles may mean a cut in staff?
Indeed it is fair too suggest that the responsibility lies with the management team in place to ensure that all employees feel valued Best Industries To Start A Business 2019 and involved in process improvements. To do this sounds very simple but if the truth be known it happens at a very shallow level.
Creating this lean behaviour is not as simple as employing fresh people who portray lean behaviour. The first step is to examine the culture of the business, which is more often than not created by the values and actions of the senior management. Culture is based on beliefs, attitudes and priorities of its workforce. Lean can only be implemented with the right culture.
At the front end, Lean is thought of as the driver behind an increase in performance- productivity and profit. Getting the employees to buy into this change means a thorough understanding of people’s drivers and emotions is required. An atmosphere of inclusion is necessary as people not only need to be told of changes but informed as to why. This needs to be accurate and told simultaneously.
As well as communication being a vital element of engagement, training needs to be put in place and continued on a regular basis. With a structured appraisal process mixed in with their competence in the 7 Lean skills, (customer consciousness, enterprise thinking, adaptation, taking initiatives, innovation, collaboration and influence), employees behaviour and engagement are being reinforced by the processes and procedures of the company.
Behaviour and engagement are the true foundations of starting and maintaining a lean organisation. Get these fundamentals in place and the rest of the lean iceberg will fall into place.