Need to Get “Lean” after the holidays? It’s Just Common Sense!
Most lean principles fall under a very old-fashioned ideal that some of us still remember; common sense. During another recent visit with a wire harness and cable manufacturer, I had a great discussion with a fellow old-school manager on the merits of lean. He told me “Steve, I really don’t know what all the fuss is about lean; we have been doing it forever but never called it lean; it’s just common sense.”, which is kinda the whole point of lean. I will close by paraphrasing the great Vince Lombardi, in his speech on What it Takes to be Number One:
Lean “is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time.”