Lessons from a Lean Consultant

3. The Lean Infrastructure: Kaizen

In the early stages of a lean manufacturing journey, companies are faced with a variety of challenges and obstacles that impede how effective and quickly new lean processes are implemented. Engineers, middle managers, and production supervisors are commonly made responsible for integrating lean manufacturing in addition to their regular job obligations. Manufacturing engineers, for example, typically have a collection of time-intensive responsibilities such as writing procedures, updating bills of materials, dealing with day-to-day issues, and even training. Middle managers are typically even busier, because they have authority over multiple people, attend numerous meetings, and participate in decision making. ...