“If appearance and essence where the same thing, there would be no need for science” Michio Kaku, The future of the mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind.
… science is under emotional influence, let’s consider both people and process components!
Start a lean manufacturing operation means implement a systematic and scientific methodology to transform current operations, but must importantly, implies the introduction of planned projects and this, by nature are-or should be-instruments of change, and change management techniques should, therefore, relate to these transformations.
In other words: the transition from the traditional manufacturing to lean is equally a change management issue as a manufacturing or technical issue.
Unfortunately change management processes are extremely heterogeneous amongst each other, a factor making a systematic approach difficult, here is where substantive and symbolic levels meet.
Change management approaches could be achieved through “Planned Change” or “Emergent Change”.
Planned Change approach provides that “before adopting a new behavior, it is necessary to identify the unacceptable elements of current behaviors and to define actions to bridge the gap. In such approaches, the clear priorities are the ability to define the areas of change, to design the path toward it, starting from top management”, here the top management commitment and structure are key.
In contrast, the approach of Emergent Change “proposes the necessity of governing change from the bottom of the transformation, given the distance between top management and the strategic sensors that signal the problems, and the relative conservatism of management. In this case, change is viewed as a continuous and open process, able to handle uncertainty and complexity”, here discipline is the key factor.
The lean manufacturing methodologies (TPS, WCM, and others) provides the structure in which the top management commits to, supporting and sustaining the improvement initiatives arising from their own work team.
The identification, selection, education, training and multi-specialization of skills of the staff members who in turn would become the principal agents of organizational change (the human factor) as team leaders or seeds, is the bottom-up transformational factor involving all personnel with empowerment and operational autonomy delivering a disciplined focus.
Lean manufacturing requires change in structure, system, process, and employee behavior, then we need to include both people and process components operating on two main principles: ‘continuous improvement’ and ‘respect for people’. People form the soul of lean process.
Bibliography
Sandro Trento, Marco Zamarian & Loris Gaio “How to start a revolution: organizational changes and lean system at FCA Pomigliano plant”. Università degli Studi di Trento.
Nordin, N., Deros, B.M., Wahab, D.A. and Rahman, M.N.A. (2012) “A framework for organizational change management in lean manufacturing implementation”, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.101–117.