Lean Case Study - Central Government Department

Since the end of 2004 we have been working with this central government department to introduce Lean Thinking and have worked with eight separate locations, rolling-out Lean throughout their operating teams.

 

This introduction of Lean is following Bourton Group’s Diffusion Approach where the organisation is split into a number of Learning Families each containing several natural work teams.  The responsibility for delivery of the training is gradually being transferred from Bourton Group consultants to a pre-selected group of company facilitators.  These facilitators are now approaching the point where they will take full responsibility for the Lean roll-out at their locations. 

 

To date these events are proving very successful with real improvements in team performance.  These improvements include significant reductions in lead-time, increased efficiency, better quality outputs and greatly improved working environments.  A core part of their transition from traditional to lean working is the adoption of the Lean Daily Management System.  This includes the adoption of Daily Workgroup meetings, Team Primary Visual Displays, Kaizen Improvement programmes and use of the 20 Keys Assessment tool to gauge their progress towards Lean Thinking.