How to implement 15 Lean Principles in your organization? – guidance

Adopting Lean thinking and implementing lean culture, as you already might know, is a key step for increasing efficiency in any process, and improve competitiveness in todays wild world of the business.

this article covers:

• 15 Lean Principles – list
• Detailed Lean Guiding Principles Explaination
• Download 15 Lean principles

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15 Lean Principles – list

15 lean principles were identified to give organizations guidance to develop and pursuit everything said. Companies have much higher chances to stack up against competition, by following these principles.

Let me list them now. We will reveal each principle one by one afterwards:

1. Eliminate waste.
2. Pulling material and information.
3. Let flow the value.
4. Implement and follow standard work.
5. Balance workload.
6. Never stop validating processes. (work on not just in)
7. Make safety priority number one.
8. Understand customers.
9. Go, see, act.
10. React fast on non-standard situations.
11. Never stop developing people.
12. All levels improvement.
13. Visualize flow.
14. Align targets.
15. Act decisively.

Let’s look in more detail into each of these essential lean rules.

The best project kick off meeting? – guidance read here

Detailed Lean Guiding Principle Explaination

1. Eliminating wastes should be daily routine of all team members in all process steps. There are 8 lean wastes: Defects, Over-production, Waiting, Not used talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra-processing. Each of these wastes create downtimes in delivering value to customers.

Great tool to reveal wastes is Gemba walk, also called Chase waste process.

2. By pulling material and information is meant correct scheduling and replenishment to build only what is really required by the customer. Product consumption triggers action in previous processes to fill empty spot. It is a chain reaction up stream up to raw material, and suppliers.

Working on Takt time is important to have right pulling system.

How to calculate Takt Time and Cycle Time (+Lead Time)? – read here

3. Let the value flow is about processes simplification, and improving its efficiency. Value is defined as “all the actions, that reflects customer requirements. Everything is non-value added activity and waste. This is focus on squeezing process times to minimum possible time.

SMED and 5S can help with this point.

4. Standardized work creates standard tasks followed by everybody working in the process. It is needed to deliver exact, and the same product, information, service by every one working in every process step.

It can be working instruction, process map, flow chart, or any guidance describing in detail what must be followed.

5. Balance workload is about delivering every part every day, or at least in every interval. Interval is a rate, that is defined by dividing available time per month by required outputs. By accomplishing every step in the process in every interval, you really deliver what is needed by customer.

Calculate interval, and limit produced scope to that interval. Produce the same amount every interval.

6. Never stop validating processes. Let people working not just in, but on the processes regularly. By working on the processes, I mean to involve everybody in the organization on improving their daily work. Define 15 to 20 minutes in the week, where everyone will improve. It can be physical change; it can be training; or simple discussion about pains close processes are causing to each other.

CI board, or daily PDCA walk are great tools helping here.

I strongly recommend to have Learning to See book and Mixed model Valuestream for all managers, for all supervisors, engineers and leaders. You will be able to understand how valuestream should work, how to make value flow, and implement lean in any business, any process. It is really worth it.

If you would like to buy “Learning to see” book by Mike Rother click on this affiliate marketing link: https://amzn.to/3nrgHsJ

f you would like to buy “Creating Mixed Model VS” book by Kevin J Duggan click on this affiliate marketing link: https://amzn.to/3ZteKta

I may receive a commission if you sign up through this link. This is not affecting final product pric

There are 8 questions you can follow for designing ideal value stream.

• Is process producing on takt time?
• Will you build to a finished goods supermarket, or directly to shipping?
• Where can you use continuous flow?
• Where to use supermarket pull system to control upstream processes?
• What is “the pacemaker” – single point to schedule production?
• How production mix is leveled at pacemaker?
• What increment of work will be consistently released and take away at pacemaker?
• What changes must be made to reach ideal, the future state design?

These questions were identified by Mike Rother and John Shook in their book: Learning to see. Value stream mapping to create value and eliminate muda. Link to buy this book see below.

How to be successful on Six Sigma Black Belt interview? – Q/A´s

7. Make safety priority number one is a must to have people returning home safely. And back to the work too. Strong safety culture releases the stress of being harmed. This must be endless, and ceaseless effort. It have never been in the whole history, that human life matters the most as it is now. And it is great Make everybody accountable for safety.

Train people. Lead by example. Resolve all safety problems immediately, or at least with the top priority.

8. Understanding customers is key in delivering what they really want. And it is not just final, paying customer meant by that. Customer can be your colleague from following process. It can be business goals and visions, that triggers actions in whole organization.

Use Voice of customer, or voice of the business to understand these details.

9. Go, see, act is an approach, where every element of the organization is visiting process regularly, observing it, and acting always when it is required. Important are regular process audits, how employees working in processes are following instructions.

Organize auditors to visit essential processes on regular bases

10. In the reacting fast on non-standard situations is important to set up processes on the standard situation. Standard is when all people are in, all machines running, all material available. Everything else is non-standard. By identifying non-standard situation, developing reaction on it, you make non-standard situation a standard one. Now everyone knows how to react, and what to expect.

By identifying non-standard situation, developing reaction on it, you make non-standard situation a standard one. Now everyone knows how to react, and what to expect.

Erik from sixsigmamania

Six Sigma DMAIC construction example – read here

11. Never stop developing people in hard skills as well as in soft skills. Ideal is, when people are aware about their strengths and willing to develop them selves in it. It have no value to force individuals on spending too much time on something, they do not find important.

Create development plan for each person in your organization that is willing to improve.

12. All levels improvement, or creating dialog in all levels of organization means, spreading all critical information from the top to down, and the other way. It is key to share company goals, and strategies from top to down. And it is crucial to share successes and pains from lover level of organization to the top.

Support people ideas on improvement. Listen to their pains and improve them fast. CI board is essential tool in this principle.

Key study that named LEAN- read here

13. Visualizing flow, whether material, or information, makes value delivered to the customer visible. Build a visual workspace, where all material have its dedicated space, and information is delivered to the right place.

Limit material, tooling, information to minimum possible levels.

14. By aligning targets across the organization, you define priorities for every person in that organization. So, everyone is informed, and working hard to fulfill top goals. Define and explain each goal in detail to particular person.

Monitor regularly, how persons are fulfilling each goal. Set up maximum 5 to 6 goals for each person, to not overloading them.

15. Seek agreement if making decisions. Review all options, all possibilities, that might be helpful in decision making. Understand current state by reviewing data in any problem. Make decision by understanding root cause in the case of the problem. The best decision you will do by understanding future, the ideal state of how process should work.

Align decisions to get closer to that future state.

What is Lean in the business? – example read here

Download 15 Lean principles

This is what you will get, by downloading 15 principles. There are 2 slides with 15 lean principles listed in pdf. format. There is each principle brief description. You can use it as personal guideline, training material, or tool to embed Lean culture in your organization.

To download guideline, click ont the link below:

I do videos, blog posts, and all templates for free, in my free time. I will appreciate if you can donate me a cup of cofee, for more energy in my creation. (1 dollar donation counts, too 😉 Click on this link: I would like to support Erik in his effort

Do not forget to visit and subscribe my YouTube channel. I am uploading Six Sigma, Lean and Project oriented videos regurarly. So, stay tuned.

Yours sincerely Erik.