Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Cart (0)
  • Account
  • Search
Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Explore Lean
        • What is Lean?
        • The Lean Transformation Framework
        • A Brief History of Lean
        • Lexicon Terms
        • Topics to explore
          • Operations
          • Lean Product & Process Development
          • Administration & Support
          • Problem-Solving
          • Coaching
          • Executive Leadership
          • Line Management
  • The Lean Post
        • Subscribe to see exclusive content
          • Subscribe
        • Featured posts
          Leaper climbing to goal

          Understanding Lean Thinking and Practice Fundamentals

          Twi cards on a cork board

          Understanding the True Value of the TWI...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Leadership Coaching and Custom Training
        • What is a Co-Learning Partnership (CLP)?
        • Forms and Templates
        • Featured learning
          • Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

            April 10, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

            April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Hoshin Kanri Remotely: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

            April 21, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

            April 24, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • See all Events
  • Store
        • Shopping Cart
        • Featured books
          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Learning to See

          Learning to See

          • See all Books
  • About Us
        • Our people
          • Senior Advisors and Staff
          • Faculty
          • Board of Directors
        • Contact Us
        • Lean Global Network
        • Press Releases
        • In the News
        • Careers
        • About us

The Lean Post / Articles / Ask Art: How Are Lean Teams Different?

Ask Art: How Are Lean Teams Different?

Executive Leadership

Ask Art: How Are Lean Teams Different?

By Art Byrne

June 21, 2016

"Teamwork in lean is a much bigger deal than the way most people think about it, and it's crucial to success," writes Art Byrne. In fact, he points out, most people's understanding of teamwork isn't actually teamwork - at least not from a lean standpoint. Read more.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

The way that most people think about teamwork is quite different than the type of teamwork required for lean to succeed. For example, if I asked if you functioned as a team, you would probably tell me yes, we do. But if I dug in a little deeper and asked what that meant, you would probably say things like, ‘we all get along with each other,’ or ‘we have common objectives.’ There’s nothing really wrong with this way of thinking—if, that is, you are working in a traditional batch company and don’t want to make the transition to lean.

Teamwork in lean is a much bigger deal than the way most people think about it, and it’s crucial to success. For lean to work, each member of the team needs to learn how to think and act as one. Every individual needs to support each other and be willing to give and accept criticism. You can’t have any infighting and it has to be clear to all of your associates that you are all on the same page.

But that only scratches the surface. Becoming a lean enterprise requires you to create successful, motivated teams throughout the entire company. Every function has to work together in a coordinated way. You can’t have sales soliciting large batch orders while the plant is trying to level load production. This means that you have to know what each function is doing and how it ties into the overall objectives of your company. This will take a level of teamwork that you haven’t experienced yet. And not just at your level. Teamwork has to be present all the way down to the value-adding employees. Getting everyone focused on the company’s operational excellence targets requires coordinated teamwork at every level of the organization. Leadership needs to understand this and constantly encourage this need to work together.

As you move from batch to flow you will be transitioning from a traditional ‘one man-one machine’ approach to small teams of people trying to respond directly to the demands of the customer. These new value stream teams need to come together to remove the waste and deliver value to your customers. They have to function as teams to be successful. Your current functional organization is the exact opposite of this. It creates internal squabbling and finger pointing when things go wrong.

True teams work for each other and the customer and take responsibility when things go wrong. They don’t look for someone else to blame. They understand that your customer just sees you as a single entity. They don’t care about your internal squabbles. All of which are just waste anyway. Yet your current organizational structure will always create such problems. For example, you can’t have operations trying to reduce inventory while the purchasing department is buying huge batches of raw material to try and get the cost down and thus increasing inventory. You will be working against yourself. You need the whole team to be trying to reduce inventory. Great teams need to be encouraged to try new things and not have to worry about failure. In fact, unlike your current rigid measurements, you should be encouraging a certain level of failure.

Remember that you can’t become lean without creating a learning organization. By this I mean putting all of your people in roles where they have to become problem solvers. And the only way to make that happen by design is through organizing for lean using teams. They should be organized around value streams and then by smaller production cells (teams) within the value stream. Teams tend to naturally function better than individuals when it comes to solving problems and removing waste. Team members will support and encourage each other to reach goals using a certain amount of social pressure and team rules to keep everyone focused and accountable. So, remember when you start down the lean path that lean is a team sport – not an individual competition.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Written by:

Art Byrne

About Art Byrne

Retired CEO, The Wiremold Company

Author, The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide

Best known as the CEO who led an aggressive lean conversion that increased The Wiremold Company’s enterprise value by 2,467% in just under ten years, Art is the author of the best-selling books The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide. His lean journey began with his first general manager’s job at General Electric Company in January 1982. Later, as group executive of Danaher Corporation, Art worked with Shingijutsu Global Consulting from Nagoya, Japan, all ex-Toyota Corporation experts, to initiate lean at Danaher. 

During his career, the Shingo Institute recognized Art with two awards: it bestowed the Shingo Prize to Wiremold in 1999 while he was CEO and the Shingo Publication Award to The Lean Turnaround Action Guide in 2018. Art is also a member of the AME (American Association of Manufacturing Excellence) Hall of Fame and the IndustryWeek magazine Manufacturing Hall of Fame. In addition, he has written the popular “Ask Art” articles monthly since mid-2013, compiling more than 80 of them for LEI’s Lean Post. 

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Leaper climbing to goal

Executive Leadership

Understanding Lean Thinking and Practice Fundamentals

Article by Lean Leaper

office sign that says - Kaizen Promotion Office

Executive Leadership

Ask Art: Why Do I Need a Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO)?

Article by Art Byrne

An arrow made up of business transformation terms like "challenges", "goals", and "improvement"

Executive Leadership

Ask Art: What Is the Biggest Cultural Change Barrier to Lean?

Article by Art Byrne

Related books

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

The Gold Mine Trilogy 4 Book Set

The Gold Mine Trilogy 4 Book Set

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

Related events

April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

Learn more

April 21, 2023 | Online Live Course

Hoshin Kanri Remotely: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

Learn more

Explore topics

Executive Leadership graphic icon Executive Leadership

Subscribe to get the very best of lean thinking delivered right to your inbox

Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©Copyright 2000-2023 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lean Enterprise Institute, the leaper image, and stick figure are registered trademarks of Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn More. ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!