You may think that your organization is too small to benefit from Lean training.  Think again. 

What exactly IS lean training? 

It's training that provides any organization, large or small, with a proven method to streamline its core activity through productive changes that positively impact the bottom line. Along the way, Lean gives both manager and individual contributor an equal stake in gaining organizational efficiencies, by alleviating frustrating bottlenecks and redundancies that plague their daily work.  In fact, the smaller the organization, the greater the potential for Lean thinking to transform the entire operation and significantly increase both internal morale and business potential, in a continuously applied manner.

 How is all of this accomplished?

The fundamental factor to Lean success is: PEOPLE! Developing a lean environment means taking people through a whole new approach to performance measurement, to management and leadership, and to organizational structure. Lean is a very powerful way to transform an organization's overall effectiveness, and it involves a fundamental change in thinking that grows from the core outward. The decision to apply the Lean method to an organization through training isn't always easy but, like exercise for the body, it is always the right thing to do.

We've seen it again and again. A decision is made for Lean. A Lean training is arranged and is "imposed" upon a core group of workers who may feel too overwhelmed by their current workload to take time out for a multiple-day event they are required to attend. They enter the conference room or classroom the first day of training with arms folded in a closed posture, often with an attitude of skepticism. Upper level managers who agreed to the training walk into the room thinking that the Lean instructor will now "fix" all of their problems. 

By the end of the introductory sessions and the Value Stream Mapping, all eyes are wide open and everyone is highly enthusiastic. They see the potential of Lean and they realize that, rather than some outsider coming in to "fix" their problems, they are being handed a very powerful tool for identifying and resolving their own process and performance issues — and a tool that can easily be used over and over. They also see that every single worker, no matter what their job role in the organization, has an important stake in the Lean process. That is how Lean transforms entire organizations.