James Womack on Lean Thinking in Small Companies

[Frank Chloupek]

A YouTube video clip from a speaking engagement Jim Womack has over in Italy on whether lean is easier in a small or a large company.

Click below to play.



Do you agree with Jim? What are your thoughts and experiences?

[pepperjack]

From Jim Womack's narrow parameter of organizational size leading to organizational support and transformation, he's correct that a small company can implement Lean easier through the stage of paradigm-shifts and management coming on board. However, small companies can't afford to have Lean experts or internal consultants. We operate on the fly and a case-by-case situation. We can't afford to shut down a manufacturing area for a week-long Kaizen Event.

The greater distinction I see in Lean implementations is the process stream/volume ratio. The higher the ratio, the more difficult it is to implement Lean beyond some simpler tools like 5S. By process stream, I refer to cycle time variability within a value stream, for different product mixes (e.g. we have a range of 1/2 hr to 40 hrs in one process operation's time, but only see those products once every 3 months or less). Smaller companies deal more with high process variability/volume ratios than larger companies who have high mix perhaps but also high volume and low process variability. For example, a company that's part of our Lean consortium here in town has high mix/low volume but the product configurations are very similar and therefore the process time variability is very small. They're doing quite well on Lean implementations. They are a small operating branch of a much larger corporation also.

[LEI]

This video is based on a visit to Italy made about four years ago by James Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, at the invitation of the Italian Chamber of Industry to speak about lean management. While there, he visited some companies where Bonfiglioli Consulting was doing work. I’d like to make it clear that this promotional video from Bonfiglioli should not be taken as an endorsement of Bonfiglioli’s work by James Womack or the Lean Enterprise Institute. No matter what the intended or unintended impression that this video gives, there never has been any business relationship between James Womack, the Lean Enterprise Institute, and Bonfiglioli. -Chet Marchwinski, communications director, Lean Enterprise Institute