"Would the roof cave in if we stopped doing this work altogether?"

While starting a lean transformation, management usually asks: “How can we make this operation more efficient?”

It is the wrong question. The question should be: “Would the roof cave in if we stopped doing this work altogether?” And if the answer is “probably not,” then management’s role is to take immediate action and eliminate the activity. It is always amazing how many of the things we do will never be missed.

- Peter Drucker

Toyota calls it kaikaku. Peter Drucker calls it organized abandonment. Michael Hammer calls it reengineering. Many consultants call it business transformation. Whatever you call it, the results are rapid, breakthrough improvements to your business that create competitive advantage.

Any why is ongoing transformational change vital to your business? John Kotter (who teaches leadership at Harvard Business School and has made it his business to study change initiatives in business) puts it this way:

“Companies that fail to sustain significant change end up facing crises.
By then, their options are greatly reduced, and even after heroic efforts they often decline".

We’ve learned that companies successful with lean transformation don’t wait for a crisis. They build transformational change into their culture to sustain excellence in their operations.

Our Role

As your trusted outside advisor, we’ll work with your team with a proven rapid assessment process that quickly identifies non-value add activities in your business. We’ll then define what aggressive, yet attainable results are possible during your lean enterprise transformation, and recommend an implementation approach that includes a time line with specific milestones, a resource plan and risk assessment. But we do more than advise - we offer to become your risk-sharing partner by linking our compensation to the breakthrough results we’ve identified as possible.

This risk-sharing approach allows your lean transformation to be self-funding with outstanding business value, and develops a culture that accepts – even embraces - transformational change.

What’s Possible?

Here are some real examples of breakthrough results we’ve committed to achieve with clients:

Increase throughput 30% in 6 months using existing resources for an injection molding manufacturer
Increase productivity 50% in 9 months for a loan processing value stream in a regional bank
Reduce required inventories 60% in 9 months for a heavy equipment manufacturer
Reduce time-to-customer 50% - 80% in 6 months for order fulfillment at an insurance company
Reduce time-to-market 50% for the next new product launch at a medical device manufacturer

If you’re looking for a seminar or want to attend a class about managing transformational change, we can recommend other resources for you. But if you’re seeking the most experienced team of lean change agents available who will work with you as a risk-sharing partner during your lean transformation, we can do a great job for you.