We’ve been on our Lean Manufacturing/Continuous Improvement journey for just over ten years. It’s been an interesting journey, and we’ve learned a lot. Our vision when we started was to create a culture of continuous improvement. Our goal was to give our employees the education, training, and necessary tools to let them have more control over their work and then get out of their way.

When I look back at the improvements we’ve made and the innovations we have come up with, I am amazed and proud of our team. The greatest satisfaction in my job comes when I see someone grow, develop and rise to their potential. Some have surprised me, because I really didn’t think they had it in them. That certainly is a learning moment for me – never underestimate anyone.

We’ve become more efficient, innovative and responsive to our customers. We’ve become more systematic, standardizing our processes, making them more repeatable. And, maybe most importantly, we’ve developed our team members.

Several years ago, our improvements began to stall. We seemed to be going backward. Our first reaction was: What’s wrong with our employees? Why aren’t they improving?

Then we took a closer look at what we were doing. We had started to do Lean “to” people instead of “with” them. We started throwing Lean concepts at them instead of helping them learn and get involved. We were becoming more concerned with the techniques of the Lean tools than with the people involved.

So we took a step back and retooled our efforts. We have returned to our original vision of improving our team members and then letting them come up with improvement ideas. The results have been very encouraging. Our continuous improvement activities are back on track.

Lesson learned.