Key Points

• Lean washing undermines true, lasting improvement.
• Root causes can stem from strategic misalignment and a lack of training.
• Making use of Lean requires strategy, commitment, and a supporting culture built around continuous improvement.

Recently, many organizations have started name-dropping Lean, with the notion being that it helps to reduce cycle times, lower inventory levels, and lead to improved throughput as a matter of course. However, these organizations aren’t sticking to the principles and teaching, and as such, fail to sustain gains or deliver value to customers time and time again. This is a phenomenon known as Lean washing, or a superficial adoption of the tools and nomenclature without the necessary discipline, cultural shifts, and metrics that make the methodology such a powerful approach in the first place.

Today, we’re looking at the root causes of the phenomenon, highlighting common symptoms, and outlining some practical strategies you can take to pivot from superficial adoption to genuine, sustained operational excellence going forward.

What Is Lean Washing?

Lean washing is a phenomenon that occurs when an organization appears to make use of Lean methods, like Kanban boards or 5S initiatives, but fails to integrate them into the greater fabric of the organization. As such, you’ll see short-term projects, minimal gains, and an erosion of credibility toward Lean for future improvement work.

So, how does this happen? Simply put, the promise of methodologies like Lean is about making things better, at least on the surface level. Leadership can simply misread that Lean achieves quality through reducing waste, increasing consistency, and aligning workflows with customer value. What you get instead is Lean in name only, and a vain attempt at making lasting improvements without the necessary understanding of how the methodology functions.

Initiatives fail because there is a distinct lack of clarity in strategic alignment and methodology. Lean washing simply exacerbates the risk that some organizations will face.

Typical Symptoms of Lean Washing

Now that we’ve shed some light on what Lean washing is, let’s take a closer look at some of the typical symptoms you might encounter in an organization. Without proper commitment, it can be all too easy to fall into the trap of adopting Lean in name only.

Tool-First Implementation

Daily huddles, visual management boards, and 5S campaigns aren’t functionally sound without the requisite work done. As you’ve likely seen in the decades of writing we’ve done on the subject, there needs to be a foundation for Lean initiatives to take hold. Some organizations simply forego developing baseline performance metrics, defining customer value, or even visually mapping flow. The tools are treated as goals, rather than simply a means to an end.

Lack of Discipline with Metrics

Some improvements might take hold, after all, these are proven tools. However, these improvements aren’t effectively measured, nor are they validated. Any senior manager can get up in front of their peers and tout a reduction of lead times or cycle times. However, they are articulating those metrics without strong empirical evidence. Further, they’re touting those metrics without a baseline to measure against.

Limited Process Ownership

Lean efforts are likely contained entirely within the confines of a single team or department tasked with implementing tools, methodology, and so forth. The wider organization is likely completely unaware of any work being done, with process ownership being kept solely to the team or department doing the work. When the fascination with Lean is over, those gains won’t be sustained, as standard work wasn’t established for best practices.

Isolated Events Instead of Systemic Change

One of the most damaging things an organization can do when attempting Lean is to handle things as a series of isolated events. Kaizen events are an ongoing practice, something meant to enrich and ultimately provide sustained gains. Organizations that treat them as something more akin to a potluck aren’t going to see just how effective Kaizen can be. Granted, since they don’t have strong baseline metrics, they very likely aren’t fully aware of what gains have been obtained in the first place.

Confusing Visuals With Value

Lean can come with all sorts of dashboards, visual tools, and so forth. On the surface, these are very oriented toward catching your attention. However, those visual boards don’t translate directly to customer value, waste reduction, or consistency in output. They simply show activity, rather than reflecting results.

Lack of Strategic Alignment

Lean efforts might exist, but they’re largely isolated from the organization’s strategic priorities. Improvements might be happening, but they run the risk of occurring in low-value areas, where customer value isn’t a top priority.

Why Does Lean Washing Happen?

There is no shortage of reasons as to why Lean washing is a common enough occurrence. While every organization is going to have a different take on how it decides to implement Lean, we’re simply going to highlight a few of the more common root causes of Lean washing.

Leadership Impatience

Perhaps the most common reason for Lean washing happening is simply leadership seeing the tools and the misunderstood promise of quick results. Teams end up rushing into initiatives, rather than doing the legwork, and the result is a mixed bag on the whole. Lean efforts can’t go too far without the proper foundation, something any senior manager should grasp before taking the plunge.

Fundamentally Misunderstanding What Lean Is

One of the biggest misgivings I’ve seen with Lean is seeing it described as a series of tools. That couldn’t be further from the truth, however, as Lean is a complete system and philosophy for bettering processes, reducing variation, and ultimately providing value to your customers. Some managers will simply imply that you can just do 5S or Kaizen, rather than understanding the why behind these tools and methods.

Insufficient Training

Without a solid knowledge base and lacking internal coaching, teams are going to revert to superficial implementations of Lean. You can’t simply just do Lean, any more than you can simply just go do Six Sigma or TQM. These are methodologies that require quite a bit of learning, coaching, and understanding to successfully implement.

Culture Misalignment

If an organization isn’t shifting toward a culture of continuous improvement, it’s largely just engaging in Lean washing. Employees aren’t rewarded for thinking about processes, continuous improvement, or even basic concepts like cross-functional collaboration. Instead, Lean simply becomes another buzzword in a series of mediocre projects.

Measurement Gaps

Organizations might make use of the visual aids that help make Lean projects a success, but they likely lack the strong analytical base that makes such visual tools a success. Without establishing making use of systems like control charts or basic capability indices, those visual tools could imply anything. They certainly aren’t going to show gains just yet.

Lasting Changes: How to Make Lean Stick

We’ve spent a fair amount of time looking at the negatives. However, if you’re committed to making the change, then you don’t have to be stuck with Lean washing. You can move past the superficial adoption of the methodology to move toward a substantial, sustainable implementation.

Strategy and Value

The most important part of making Lean stick is taking the time to define customer value. Every industry is going to have aspects of production that bring customer value. From there, you want to start identifying where the biggest waste or variation exists. A clear, systematic approach combined with a defined strategy is going to lead to sustained results.

Establish Baselines

You can’t measure improvements without taking the time to see what your baseline is. Long before you start making use of any of the tools behind Lean, you want to measure current process performance. Core metrics to look for at this point are things like cycle time, defect rates, rework, variation, and so forth. If you can crunch the numbers with analytical tools, do so. Your baseline is going to be what you measure all future efforts against.

Map Value Stream

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is going to let you visualize how materials and inputs flow through processes. You’ll inevitably identify areas of waste, variation, and potential pain points. Variation is going to indicate waste, something you’ll be striving to eliminate in future projects.

Engage Stakeholders and Promote Process Ownership

Your stakeholders aren’t simply the top brass, but the entire workforce. Part of avoiding Lean washing is taking the steps to guarantee leadership buy-in, engage front-line employees, and ultimately make sure everyone is part of the continuous improvement efforts. Whether you opt for clearly defined process owners or shared responsibility among teams is immaterial. The notion of improvement needs to become part of the daily work being done.

Deploy Tools Deliberately, as Needed

Lean isn’t about deploying every tool in the proverbial chest. A builder isn’t going to pull out a nail gun for tightening a hose, after all. Instead, make use of tools like 5S, Kanban, control charts, and FMEA as needed. Deployment of these tools should have a deliberate aim behind them, deployed in response to identified wastes or pain points. Further, deployed tools should result in measurable improvements.

Monitor and Sustain Gains

After changes have been made to processes, you want to make sure they stick. Monitoring is vital for making sure your metrics are performing as they should. Further, this is the prime time to establish standard work, enabling future initiatives to reap the benefits of any meaningful improvements. You’ll also want to make use of control mechanisms to prevent potential regression; you don’t want to see those newly received gains go down the drain after all.

Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement

If the culture around your organization isn’t oriented with Lean in mind, then the practical strategies we’ve discussed will be for nothing. Employees should be encouraged to spot waste, inefficiencies, and variation to point out to leadership. Leadership, in turn, should recognize and reward the behavior. Improvement should be at the center of the organization’s culture, being part of the overall journey rather than a means to an end.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Ready to keep going? You might want to take a closer look at some advanced uses of the Theory of Constraints. ToC is a fantastic way to identify and break past bottlenecks. We’ve covered some rather typical uses in the past, but our latest take on the subject goes into more practical applications for skilled practitioners to make use of.

Further, you might want to see how Kaizen can help orient your organization’s cybersecurity efforts. Breaches and bad actors are nothing new, and they’re only getting bolder with every passing day. Taking the time now to make security an embedded part of your corporate culture is putting you on the fast track for a stronger overall security posture.

Conclusion

Tools alone don’t make for efficient, stable processes. Hopefully, you come away with a keen understanding of what Lean washing is and how to avoid it for your organization’s sake. Lean isn’t about the latest tools leading to magical process transformations. As it stands, Lean washing poses a significant risk to any organization that isn’t embodying all the principles and teachings of Lean. That said, making the switch to the real deal is quite an undertaking, but it will result in better value delivered to your customers.