Gina Temple on the Five Key Principles of Lean

Gina Temple: What Are the Key Principles of Lean?

Understanding lean management is essential to developing good organizational skills and positioning yourself as an effective team or department manager. According to Gina Temple, lean management is a method that helps improve a company's efficiency through proper organization and management of work. It supports the idea of continuous improvement within an organization, which comes in multiple forms.

James P. Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jones were the authors who studied different manufacturing systems and, in their 1990 book The Machine That Changed the World, identified lean principles. There are five principles of lean management that organizations can implement to reduce waste. In some cases, one process may go through lean multiple times before the company manages to eliminate all its waste. Here are the five key principles of lean management and what they mean:

Define value.

The first principle of lean is value, notes Gina Temple. In determining a product's value, it's necessary to know how much consumers are willing to pay for it. Companies can use several methods to determine what their customers find valuable, for instance, interviews, surveys, or demographic data. These tools are especially essential for companies that manufacture modern products that most customers aren't familiar with. By using quantitative and qualitative research techniques, organizations can determine customer interest and demand.

Map the value stream.

During this step of the lean process, organizations map their workflow, in which they include actions and employees who work on a specific product. Reviewing the workflow allows them to review what happens within the organization and identify any actions or manufacturing stages that bring no value to the company. 

Create flow.

After defining products' value and eliminating waste, it's important to work toward creating a continuous workflow, adds Gina Temple. Many companies accomplish this by finding ways to become cross-functional across all departments, enabling products or services to flow smoothly toward customers. Here are some more strategies for creating flow:

•     Reconfigure steps.

•     Break down manufacturing steps.

•     Improve employees' qualifications through additional training.

•     Level out the workload.

 Establish pull.

Lean management enables organizations to implement a pull-based system that limits inventory. In many companies, inventory is the biggest waste that interrupts the smooth flow of the production system. Implementing a change of this type makes it possible for companies to make products when customers want them and are ready to purchase them. It also allows manufacturers to ensure their products are of excellent quality.

Continuous improvement

The final stage in the lean management process is continuous improvement, notes Gina Temple. This allows organizations to maintain positive changes to ensure long-term improvement in their efficiency and performance. To make lean management a vital part of a company's organizational structure, it's important that all employees feel involved and accountable for the change. This is the most important step in the process that allows companies to find new ways to improve. At this stage, some companies choose to go through the entire process multiple times to eliminate as much waste from their processes as possible.

Gina Temple has served in the healthcare community for over 30 years with experiences ranging from for-profit to not-for-profit organizations, unionized to non-unionized facilities, and acute care settings to outpatient centers. Read more of her insights on healthcare and leadership by subscribing to this page.