One of the many ironies.....
For those not familiar with Lean manufacturing, the philosophy of Lean is simple: Eliminate waste!
As a lean practitioner for over a decade, I have been driven by this mission in all of my corporate stints. So much so that I now almost live and breathe Lean philosophy. Whether it was rolling out Kaizen within my team that would ultimately become a corporate level initiative or whether it was to undertake a Supply Chain diagnostic for a retail client - I have continued to strive and eliminate waste of any form.
It does not amaze me anymore when I see organisations who are trying to generate efficiencies by eliminating waste in their processes, end up creating newer processes that add to the waste. In our role as project managers, we ensure that we have the stakeholders mapped out, communication plans chalked out, etc. Most of PM's would periodically develop presentations and decks for stakeholders update as well. Conference call invites, action logs, etc. are floating around that give the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to one and all. Occasional red flags on risk items also add to the excitement.
What goes un-noticed is the scope creep within the project management tasks - which is duplication of what is already happening - and thereby adds back waste to the process of Project Management. One senior management position would initiate a separate discussion, create more calendar invites, PowerPoint decks, action logs, etc. etc. And as a crucial stakeholder, most PM's would end up getting sucked into these "wasted" add-on items. Chances are, such an action by one senior manager would get emulated by a few other senior managers, because the latter would not want their influence / importance be seen as any less. So you have more calls, more decks, more duplication or simply, more waste getting created. Ironically, no one would have sufficient visibility to this incremental waste. If this is indeed true in most organisations, imagine the scale of waste that is created across any industry, country or the economy.
Just as we say that Lean transformation needs top management support to be successful, the remediation of this invisible waste also needs to begin from the top and a sincere introspection would be a good first step.
As a lean practitioner for over a decade, I have been driven by this mission in all of my corporate stints. So much so that I now almost live and breathe Lean philosophy. Whether it was rolling out Kaizen within my team that would ultimately become a corporate level initiative or whether it was to undertake a Supply Chain diagnostic for a retail client - I have continued to strive and eliminate waste of any form.
It does not amaze me anymore when I see organisations who are trying to generate efficiencies by eliminating waste in their processes, end up creating newer processes that add to the waste. In our role as project managers, we ensure that we have the stakeholders mapped out, communication plans chalked out, etc. Most of PM's would periodically develop presentations and decks for stakeholders update as well. Conference call invites, action logs, etc. are floating around that give the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to one and all. Occasional red flags on risk items also add to the excitement.
What goes un-noticed is the scope creep within the project management tasks - which is duplication of what is already happening - and thereby adds back waste to the process of Project Management. One senior management position would initiate a separate discussion, create more calendar invites, PowerPoint decks, action logs, etc. etc. And as a crucial stakeholder, most PM's would end up getting sucked into these "wasted" add-on items. Chances are, such an action by one senior manager would get emulated by a few other senior managers, because the latter would not want their influence / importance be seen as any less. So you have more calls, more decks, more duplication or simply, more waste getting created. Ironically, no one would have sufficient visibility to this incremental waste. If this is indeed true in most organisations, imagine the scale of waste that is created across any industry, country or the economy.
Just as we say that Lean transformation needs top management support to be successful, the remediation of this invisible waste also needs to begin from the top and a sincere introspection would be a good first step.
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
4:09 pm
|
0 comments
