Mission Out of Control Launching a better lean strategy

摘要

Students of lean manufacturing are familiar with the DMAIC (define-measure-analyze-improve-control) cycle and generally do a good job with the first four elements. But the fifth— control—often trips us up, even though it is the most critical part of any lean initiative. The control part is where we are given feedback on the effectiveness of the first four steps, as well as an indication as to whether those steps are working as intended.rnWhy do we tend to fail with control when implementing lean? I believe it is because the glory of a lean initiative comes from designing a new process, implementing it, and then bragging about the expected benefits—not from post-implementation monitoring of the details. "Designing" and "implementing" sing out on your resume. "Monitoring" makes you look like a clerk whose colleagues have moved on to more important things.