In these posts I will tell you about my thoughts from the Gemba from the past week. They are meant to make you think and reflect on the subject and comment with your thoughts. In that way we get a discussion rolling and we all get a bit wiser and a bit more knowledgeable!
Why won’t leaders implement improvements
I often find that even when you have been doing the ropes with leaders on some kind of Lean project or Lean activity they never find the time to implement it. Why is that? Why is it that even though the business case is pretty clear or the advantages are screaming at the leader the leader doesn’t find the time, the resources, the finances etc.?
I mean if I am the leader why would I not just run for the opportunity to get one more production hour a day, increase my OEE, reduce my lead time and my cost? I would prioritize getting these improvements done in my Gemba.
But still it seems that this is not always of interest to the leaders, why is that? Of course we need to run the operations and we need to deliver to the customer. But it just strikes me again and again why is it that we put up with broken and ineffective processes causing frustration, overwork and bad moral amongst our employees?
Is it bad leadership, pressure from upper management or is it perhaps more that we like being heroes? Is it that leaders likes to be the hero that solves the problems? Likes to be the firefighter that puts out the fire? Is that really the reason why we put up with lousy working environment, broken processes and bad moral?
If that is the case can we change that? And do we want to change it? If we can change how do we do that?
What are your thoughts on my Gemba thoughts of the week? Do you think I am right? Or do you think I am wrong? Do you have a completely different nuance on my thoughts?