Core Competencies for Lean Leadership

For active shop floor management, leadership development comes first…

When companies have a clear lean culture and the concept of leadership is embraced by the whole organization, the lean techniques applied gradually move beyond methods and begin to become a way of life.

Every organization applies different approaches to move forward on the path that supports lean transformation, and makes implementation plans to put these approaches into practice; each institution should create an integration plan that offers models suited to its own business culture and capable of meeting its sector’s needs. To give a clearer example, lean plans in the cement sector will differ from the plans of plants that do mass manufacturing and are labor-intensive. 

Although these plans differ by sector, real lean leadership lies at the center of every successful plan. Leaders are the people who will keep the culture alive both on the floor and in management. However, leadership does not mean only someone with high seniority or someone who knows the work better than others. A real leader is a person who can align the team that reports to them with the company’s mission and goals, manage the team, and is valued by their team.

From this perspective, the role of leaders within the organization is important when a new culture is being created. To increase the effectiveness of active Lean Leadership and teamwork, it will be useful for the leader to consider the following five points.

1. Master the gemba and show real leadership: Be in the gemba constantly, talk with your team members, listen to their problems outside work and try to come up with solutions. Leaders are approachable people. Be visible.
2. Teach them to pick the low-hanging fruit first: Small improvements matter because the people who make the improvements matter. Small steps carry the team to the main point it wants to reach. For this, encourage your team toward small but effective improvements. Make kaizen a common language.
3. Follow daily activities closely and make sure data is mastered: Leaders’ statements should be different from those of other team members. Conversations not based on data are nothing but individual opinions. All comments and suggestions should be based on daily data, using concrete and clear expressions.
4. Know the weak link in the team : Address the problem quickly and take corrective action with a positive outlook. Bringing everyone to the same competency level should be within the leader’s competence. Give importance to team development and training. When problems occur, make team members part of the solution. This way a sense of achievement develops within the team, and the ability to take action on problems will also develop with experience.
5. Give your team the opportunity to make mistakes: People should not be punished for their mistakes. On the contrary, those who can learn from their mistakes should be rewarded. Anyone can make a mistake, but the same mistake should be made only once. Spread root cause work across your team so that they can courageously admit they made a mistake. With the same courage, may they put actions into practice and prevent others from making the same mistake.

Many more items and topics could be added to the above. But for sustainable shop floor management and real field leadership, leaders should internalize lean thinking through these 5 core points and turn it into their own culture. Only in this way can a team transformation be achieved that can take on every new practice.

Among Gemba Partner’s services, you can get ideas for your organizational development by exploring the Leadership Development and Shop Floor Management Development programs. To learn more about developing your leaders, you can get in touch with us and share your requests.