Leading and Managing Lean

Chapter 4

Lean Team

The third element of lean management is the use of a team-based approach. The logic for utilizing teams can be summed up by Aristotle’s idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”¹ Namely, a team ­possessing the correct camaraderie and esprit de corps will facilitate objective attainment. As noted by Taiichi Ohno, “A championship team combines good teamwork with individual skill.”² A team-based approach promotes system goals further than any group of individuals acting ­independently can. Baines and Langfield-Smith observe in their study of 151 organizations that a shift toward a strategy to differentiate the organization from competition typically results in an organization design that relies upon greater ...