At a successful Lean conference in Istanbul in December 2015, various lean change projects from 150 companies were presented, showing a commitment to competitiveness through balanced operations and people management. Leadership, teamwork, and talent development are realized through continuous improvement, problem solving, and sound management practices. Lean practices and tools can be applied to any organizational function and facilitate learning by challenging perceptions through small, tested improvements. The conference highlighted lean pilot projects from companies demonstrating how perceptions of workers and managers changed from fear and disbelief to confidence and commitment through learning from failures and successes.

1. T A L E N T I N O P E R A T I O N S !
BELBIN®
Athens 25/01/2016
© A n a s t a s i a M a r i n o p o u l o u , 2 0 1 6 + . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d
In December 2015, in Divan-Asia hotel in Istanbul, one of the most successful Lean conferences
in the world took place. It was not because it was attended by 500+ participants from 150
companies but because various lean change projects were presented without any cover-up,
without pompous words but with the required humility, quest for more knowledge and respect for
the courage and the effort of the numerous teams of employees and workers (and their managers)
who took the step to do things differently.
What was evident, once more was the commitment to competitiveness but through a balanced
techno-socio perspective, meaning managing with the same attention both the operations and the
People.
Leadership , Teamwork and talent development with Lean become concrete and realised as
everybody has an awaiting challenge; competitiveness and innovation are just the corollary of
cooperation, problem solving and sound management.
Talent in Operations
In the photo Toshio Horikiri
CEO and Senior Consultant
Toyota Engineering Corporation
A motivating and insightful
speech on how to make
companies grow through TPS
and TMS.
For those who do not know it,
Toyota has contributed a lot not
only creating but also deepening
and widening the Lean philoso-
phy and methodology that now
expands to all production and
services’ sectors
So what is best?
• Average talent in effective operations?
• Absolute talent in average operations?
• Absolute talent in effective operations?
What is talent anyway?
and
How can the term ‘talent’ be well defined in a changing market
and thus organisational environment?
Leaving the theoretical context of the questions (without
ignoring its importance), Lean brings in the necessary
pragmatism with a thoughtful approach to change management
and business development that can easily be adapted to sector,
market and organisational maturity needs, starting from waste
reduction and work-place organisation (that everybody can
understand and follow) to Work levelling and Customer Pull.

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© A n a s t a s i a M a r i n o p o u l o u , 2 0 1 6 + . A l l r i g h t s
Perceptions shape work behaviours and it is difficult as managers and individuals to
change them if we cannot be assured that changing them, it will lead to beneficial results, appreciated
at all levels. Fair enough.
Lean starts with Kaizen = small improvements that offer the safe basis to test, challenge, discover, fail
and learn, learn and progress changing perceptions on capabilities both on individual and team level,
gradually and as appropriate for us as biologically and psychologically shaped by nature.
C H A N G I N G P E R C E P T I O N S
Lean Pilot projects facilitate learning,
challenging and changing perceptions.
At the conference, many companies presenting
their lean projects like Eczacıbaşı Vitra
(furniture production) and Akmetal (metal casting)
showed us interviews taken from their workers
and managers before and after the lean
initiatives were introduced, in which the
various feelings of fear, disbelief and insecurity
were gradually replaced (learning, failing and
succeeding) by confidence, a NO BLAME
attitude and genuine commitment to finding the
right solution.
On the left some of the client companies which
used lean and whose representatives talked about
the challenges and the benefits accrued.
I highly recommend Lean practices and tools for
any type of business. Lean can be applied to all
organisational functions, even in R&D and sales!
In the picture below the participants’ sector profile
TOYOTA
Engineering
Corporation
The Lean Institute
of Israel
ERKUNT tractors CIMTAS-GEMİ
Ship building
Wagner KABLO TEPE HOME
Furniture production
ISUZU
AUTOMOTIVE
VESTEL
White appliances
production
IPEKYOL
Clothing production
DURA
Machinery
SANCIM BILECIK
CIMENTO
Cement
Manufacturing
COSKUNOZ
METALFORM VE
MAKINA
Tuprag
Gold mine
AKBANK
Demisaş
Metal casting
AKMETAL
Metal casting
Intertek Test
Services
ASELSAN
Defence systems
EFI OTOMOTIV

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© A n a s t a s i a M a r i n o p o u l o u , 2 0 1 6 + . A l l
W H O L E A D S I N L E A N ?
For more information pls view:
www.lean.org.tr and www.lean.org
or contact Anastasia Marinopoulou:
info@ progressthrough.com
www.progressthrough.com
In the picture: the speakers’ profile.
Lean is not a set of methods for the ‘specialists’
only. It is about everyone in the organisation from
Senior Management to workers’ level as everyone
should understand and respect each other’s role and
contribution. Joining such a conference, you will
immediately understand this connection as all
managers speak about their teams’ contribution.
The team of the Lean Institute of Turkey, the most successful
among the Lean Institutes!
It was founded during the times of crisis to offer new tools and
practices to those who wanted to overcome the difficult times
and compete on a global level.
M O R E F L E X I B I L I T Y ? T R Y L E A N !
Flexibility and outward—looking are words
that are so frequently used in articles and
books on management this year.
Flexibility in my opinion is nothing else but
the state of mind and alertness to understand
the changes in the market and the readiness to
adapt strategy as well as the operational
architecture and systems to support the chosen
strategy.
Without the corresponding commitment and
knowledge how to change (and within the
required time frame) on all levels and espe-
cially where value is created (at customer fac-
ing operations), flexibility and outward —
looking remain in the domain of aspirations.
Having worked in Lean projects, having
talked about the Lean methodology and being
in the process of developing a Lean frame for
marketing and sales with a selected team of
consultants, I cannot say but do read and do
try to introduce at least one lean concept in
your organisation!