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Why Lean Fail

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1. Name: Joe Smith 2. Discipline: Lean Manufacturing 3. Preliminary Research Question: Why do lean improvements fail to self-sustain in manufacturing? 4. The story is the same for many manufactures who find early success in lean initiatives; savings are well documented, employees become engaged, and then at some point entropy occurs. These initiatives stall for several reasons; first, leaders must walk the talk, they are engaged in lean process as long as the change is finically driven and immediate results can be seen. They declare victory and in time go back to their routine thinking the lean is done. In addition, operators become excited during the process (after some convincing at times). They see the engagement of their leaders, are involved in the process and feel like they are being heard. However, over time, work stations are back to the state they were prior to the lean initiatives. So why this difficult task for manufacturing personnel, we all want to more efficient and profitable right? I will explore this research questions through personal experience and research in my years in the manufacturing environment. 5. Presently, I am the Plant Manager of a factory in Dallas; I have over a year experience as a plant manager currently; however I have 7 years’ experience in implementing lean initiatives such as TPM, 5S, value mapping etc. Over the years I have become disappointed in the lasting results and have worked diligently with other to sustain improvements. Currently, we are implementing 5S and TPM at the plant here in Dallas and based on my experience and knowing what is coming during the process I want to head off entropy before we lose ground in the process.

6. Keywords & Synonyms: * Lean Manufacturing: lean production, management strategy * Failures: disappointments, letdowns, entropy, breakdown *

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