The document outlines 9 keys to successfully implementing Lean principles to increase competitiveness. It discusses the importance of leadership commitment, developing a clear vision, strategic planning, engaging employees, standardizing processes, continuous improvement culture, visual management systems, pull-based production, and maintaining the changes over time. The overall message is that Lean requires organizational change that must be carefully planned and led from the top to realize benefits like increased efficiency, quality, and engagement.

1. 9 KEYS TO INCREASING
COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH LEAN
IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY
& ENGAGE YOUR TEAM
www.vative.com.au

2. 1www.vative.com.au
INTRODUCTION
If you’ve been thinking about
introducing Lean but aren’t sure
where to start, then this ebook is for
you.
And if you’ve attempted to introduce
Lean, this book will help you
assess what may be done better
to ensure a smooth and profitable
implementation.
Some businesses do struggle to
adopt Lean, usually because these 9
keys to Lean success aren’t followed
consistently. Other businesses realise
they need to do something to arrest
worrying trends in their business, but
they’re not sure what to do.
• IS LEAN THE ANSWER?
• WHAT BENEFITS CAN THEY EXPECT?
• HOW MUCH WORK IS INVOLVED?
• WHAT IS THE RIGHT APPROACH?

3. 2www.vative.com.au
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAMIEN LACEY HAS SPENT
HIS ENTIRE CAREER LOOKING
AT WAYS FOR COMPANIES TO
REDUCE WASTE AND IMPROVE
THEIR OPERATIONS.
His 15 years of experience with Lean,
has included the roll out of Lean with
the Bosch Production System (BPS)
team in Australia, product & process
development with Toyota Technical
Centre Australia (including a 3 year
posting in Toyota Motor Corporation
HQ, Aichi, Japan), then with Vative as
a Lean consultant and now as Sales
and Marketing Director.
The three years spent with Toyota
in Japan, in particular, sharpened
his focus on how to reduce costs
and improve efficiencies. It was
a transformative experience in a
culture where new ideas and better
ways of doing things were constantly
sought to reduce waste and boost
productivity.
“Continuous Improvement was
genuinely lived and breathed
through the company, from the
secretary who was organising
documents for a meeting through to
engineers and middle management
to the board,” Damien says.
“Every single aspect - product
development, testing, production,
the supply chain, sales, marketing
and distribution – is looked at and
improved relentlessly. When I came
back, I could see the opportunities
for Australian companies - how
they should operate, how they can
improve and do better.”
He has managed many major Lean
initiatives with Bosch, Toyota &
then with Vative clients, working
with senior managers, company
owners, frontline management and
operations staff to implement Lean
systems.
Damien holds a Bachelor of
Engineering (Mechanical) with
Honours. He is also fluent in
Japanese (JLPT2), holding a Bachelor
of Arts with a major in Japanese.
CONTACT DAMIEN:
Damien Lacey
Sales & Marketing Director
Vative - Truly Innovative
260A Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley
VIC 3150
T: 1300 VATIVE (82 84 83) or
+61 3 9886 3852
M: +61 408 416 242
E: damien.lacey@vative.com.au
W: www.vative.com.au

4. 3www.vative.com.au
INTRODUCTION
• Are you struggling to cope
with increasing competition
domestically or overseas?
• Is poor productivity pushing up
your prices to uncompetitive
levels?
• Are you introducing a new
product or moving premises and
want the most efficient process
possible?
IF YOU ANSWER ‘YES’ TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, THEN
LEAN IS A MINDSET AND APPROACH WHICH CAN HELP YOU IMPROVE
YOUR ORGANISATION’S PERFORMANCE FOR THE LONG TERM:
• Do you want greater efficiencies
in your administrative processes?
• Is there a lot of waste in your
organisation, but you would like
to better identify or quantify it?
• Do you need to cut lead times,
labour costs or raw material
costs?
• Is your profitability falling?
• Are your staff disengaged?
• Is your culture: “that’s the way it’s
always been done”, rather than
“how can we do it better?”

5. 4www.vative.com.au
INTRODUCTION
• Black Duck Canvas’ production
line capacity increases by more
than 30%
• Kmart cuts operational costs
by more than $3 million
• La Trobe University achieves
$2.6M in savings and average
ROI of 250% on ICT projects
WHEN INTRODUCED THE RIGHT WAY, LEAN
DELIVERS SIGNIFICANT RESULTS. HERE ARE SOME
OUTCOMES OUR LEAN CLIENTS HAVE ACHIEVED:
• Mackay Multilink’s process
efficiency improves by up to 20%
within six months
• Health service achieves an 11%
improvement in patient arrival
times
• New Touch Laser’s delivery
performance lifts from 60% to
90% of jobs on time
• Peninsula Health cuts delays to
first case surgery start times
by 37%
• Sayfa Systems cuts production
lead time by 46% and achieves
process improvements of 33%
• Abigroup project achieves
productivity gains of up to 17%

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YES NO
Q: PEOPLE:
Are all relevant skills and capabilities of team members
known and visualised?
Is there an active plan to cross skill team members to
A: ensure critical processes are sufficiently covered and
B: to provide individuals professional development
opportunities?
Is there an accurate understanding of workload
requirements and from this, active workload balancing
applied to all operations?
Q: PULL SYSTEMS:
Is material replenishment and core value-add
operational processing being triggered based on
genuine customer demand?
(In other words is “what we’re ordering” or “what we’re
doing” really needed by a customer today or being
ordered/done just in case?)
YES NO
INTRODUCTION
Q: WORKPLACE ORGANISATION:
Are all tools, materials and information kept in an
organised manner?
Do team members know where to find things?
Is equipment, materials etc. put back in their defined
and labelled location and is the workplace kept clean
and tidy?
Q: VISUAL MANAGEMENT:
Is the performance of the workplace visualised? Can
you tell by looking how the area/dept. is performing?
Are the goals of the business defined, cascaded and
visualised to the department & to the individual level?
Is the status of major projects easily understood by
all in the workplace with next steps & progress clearly
defined?
HERE’S A QUICK HEALTH CHECK TO ESTABLISH WHETHER YOUR
BUSINESS IS LEAN OR UNDER-PERFORMING
YES NO
YES NO

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YES NO
INTRODUCTION
Q: PROCESS DESIGN & ORIENTATION:
Has the development of work processes and the
physical layout of the workplace been designed along
Lean principles?
Are processes reviewed to ensure work load balancing
is optimised?
Are batch sizes minimised?
Are people and processes as much as possible
grouped together in work cells?
HERE’S A QUICK HEALTH CHECK TO ESTABLISH WHETHER YOUR
BUSINESS IS LEAN OR UNDER-PERFORMING (CONT)
YES NO
Q: QUALITY & STANDARDISATION:
Are quality levels understood by all and acted upon on
a daily basis to ensure customer satisfaction?
Have standard operating procedures been developed
for critical processes and are they being followed?
Is the team using a common language and set of
tools when addressing quality issues (5 Why, Fishbone
diagrams, 8D etc.)?
Do they come together regularly as a team to solve
issues?
Are lessons learnt being actively documented and
shared?
Q: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Do team members actively come up with and work on
improvement ideas?
Is it generally understood and accepted that if
something needs to change to improve then this will
happen?
YES NO
NO# OF “YES” ANSWERS
1-8 : you are in the same state as
most Australian organisations
9-16: you are well progressed on
your Lean journey
16+: you are ahead of the pack and a
benchmark Lean organisation
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU
The above list of questions is not meant
to be exhaustive, merely to be thought
provoking. Lean can help you cut waste
and improve profitability. You can contact
us now for a no-obligation discussion
& assessment of the opportunity for
improvement within your organisation
or read on and discover the 9 factors to
sustaining a successful Lean enterprise.

8. 7www.vative.com.au
LEADERSHIP
1. Lean is a top-down and bottom-
up process, the leadership team
must decide Lean is a priority
for the business and make a
firm, long term commitment
to the change process. If as a
leadership team you haven’t
decided to stick with it as a 2-3
year initiative then perhaps
pause the activity until you can
garner that priority and focus.
If the attitude is “let’s try this
Lean thing and see how it
goes” then I would suggest not
bothering because the resolve
will most likely falter once
things get tough.
LEAN STARTS WITH GOOD LEADERSHIP AND THESE 5 STEPS
2. The leadership team needs to
have a good understanding
of what it actually means to
be Lean. You can read books,
attend a seminar or undertake
a workshop, but you must
have some level of Lean
understanding yourself.
3. With this understanding the
Leadership should have a level
of enthusiasm and excitement
about the opportunity to
improve the organisation that
Lean delivers. This passion
for change needs to be
communicated to your people
via the vision (see next step).
4. The Leadership team must
participate visibly in the
change process, e.g. chairing
a committee, getting amongst
your staff and asking them to
contribute ideas, or recognising
their success in implementing
improvements.
LEAN STARTS WITH
GOOD LEADERSHIP AND
THESE 5 STEPS

9. 8www.vative.com.au
LEADERSHIP
5. The old adage “you don’t
get something for nothing”
also holds true for Lean
implementation. You will more
than likely need to make some
investment in order to get Lean
off the ground and sustained.
This may include investment in
your staff’s time, training, Lean
project investment in tools &
equipment, paying for some
outside help etc.. However
rest assured that this is an
investment decision that every
business embarking on Lean
makes. Also it is no coincidence
that the most successful
companies in the world are
adopting and sustaining Lean
principles.
You can expect a positive
Return on Investment (ROI) but
you also need to commit.
LEADERSHIP CHECKLIST
Have we come together as a
Leadership team and decided that
Lean is a strategic goal?
Is Lean implementation and
continuous improvement on our short,
medium and long term business
plans?
How have I allocated responsibilities
for Lean implementation to all team
members?
What responsibilities do I have myself?
What is our follow up & review process
to ensure that the Lean initiative is
tracking towards success?

10. 9www.vative.com.au
VISION
1. Why are you in business? What
is your purpose? What is the
business’ purpose?
We are defining a vision here
not developing a set of KPIs.
We need to think more broadly
and deeply than “It’s our vision
to be a $20M company!”.
We want something that both
yourselves as leaders and your
team can get excited about.
“To be the largest exporter of
quality, 100% Australian owned
& grown breakfast cereals!”
“Delivering vibrant & uniquely
Australian fashion to the world”
“Helping our customers unlock
their productivity potential
through our innovative storage
solutions”
2. Why are you thinking about
implementing Lean?
(By the way “I want to increase
gross profit by an extra 5%”
won’t cut it as a basis for your
Lean vision.)
3. What are your strengths, what
do you do well?
Can you build on your strengths
and improve them? Eg if your
lead time is 7 days, and you
could get it down to 5 days,
would that give you a real
competitive advantage?
What would an extra 20% of
released productive capacity
mean to your business. Would
you be able to process more
orders and grow the business?
4. What are your weaknesses?
Where is the organisation
falling down?
Are you getting a high number
of returns or complaints, are you
losing customers?
Are your operating costs or
stock levels too high?
Do you need to cut clerical
errors or increase the number of
orders processed?
Do you have poor staff
engagement, a lack of
ownership of processes or a lack
of ideas?
•
•
•
•
•
•
DESIRE AND ENTHUSIASM TO BE MORE COMPETITIVE AND EFFICIENT IS A GREAT START.
YOU NEED TO CLARIFY THIS IN TO A CLEAR VISION OR IMAGE OF HOW YOU WANT THE
ORGANISATION TO BE. THE FOLLOWING 6 STEPS CAN HELP YOU CLARIFY THIS VISION

11. 10www.vative.com.au
VISION
5. How would you measure the
success of your Lean initiative
in terms of quality, costs,
delivery performance, culture
and safety?
How would you like to see your
Quality performance improve?
How are you measuring your
operating costs and what shift
would you like to see?
What would you like to see your
delivery performance get to?
How would you assess your
culture currently and what
would you like to see change?
Is your safety record good or
can it be improved?
6. Value stream Mapping & Lean
Business Health Check
Fact and data based business
analysis tools like Value
Stream Mapping and a Lean
Business Health Check can
provide a business an unbiased
and objective view on what
is possible to improve and
where. This clear view on the
organisation’s potential can
contribute strongly to an overall
business vision. For more info
on Value Stream Mapping visit
our website or click here.
SO TO REITERATE,
BY ANSWERING THESE
QUESTIONS WE SHOULD BE
ABLE TO DISTIL WHY WE NEED
TO ADOPT LEAN THINKING
AND WHAT WE WANT THE
ORGANISATION TO BECOME.
For organisations looking to adopt a Lean
culture and adopt Lean practices, this
generally represents a significant change.
A vision of what this change looks like
needs to be defined by the leadership
group. Where is the business now, and
where it can be in the future?
Do you have a clear idea of where you
want the business to be next year, in
three years or in five? Or are you mostly
caught up in day to day management?
And if you do have a vision, has this been
communicated to your team?
As a leadership team you need to come
together and define…
• WHY are we embarking on Lean?
• WHAT do we want to achieve?
• WHAT do we want the business to
look/feel like as a result?
•
•
•
•
•

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STRATEGY & PLANNING
LEAN IS A JOURNEY AND IT
TAKES A WHILE FOR LASTING
CHANGE TO BED DOWN. YOU
NEED TO PLAN THE JOURNEY,
SET MILESTONES AND THEN
REVIEW HOW FAR YOU HAVE
COME. YOU SHOULD HAVE
QUARTERLY AND ANNUAL
GOALS WHICH ALIGN WITH
YOUR 2 OR 3 YEAR
BUSINESS PLAN.
Some critical questions at this step are:
HOW are we going to proceed
with this Lean initiative? What
will the process be? What are the
milestones?
WHAT IF we encounter some
difficulties and roadblocks? How will
we react as an organisation?
In the first year, for most organisations
embarking on Lean your main goal
should be introducing the concept
of Lean, the wastes that can exist
within a process, and ensuring it
is well understood throughout the
organisation.
By and large, a first good step to
take is the implementation of 5S
or Workplace Organisation. Better
organisation of your workplace
immediately improves efficiencies
and normally provides a quick win
justifying to everyone that “Lean
is a great idea!”. Some other Lean
projects may also be introduced in
Year 1, but introducing only a few
and sustaining them is the key. If you
had a choice between a sustained
productivity improvement of 5% or
a 40% improvement in productivity
that disappears in a couple of
months because the change wasn’t
sustained… well the answer is
obvious.
Small sustained changes are more
favourable than ‘large’ changes that
don’t get maintained.
Year 1 will require the most
intensive work for an organisation
implementing Lean, but it’s critical
you don’t lose momentum in the
following years. Most likely, ideas
such as “continuous improvement”,
“Lean projects”, “you mean I have to
stop what I’m currently doing to make
changes?” etc., will be new concepts
for the organisation. The organisation
may react slowly and painfully to
these challenges, however think of it
as the organisation developing their
‘Continuous Improvement’ muscles.
You will need a plan to chart through
this process.
YEAR 1 What will your goals and
actions for the next four quarters
look like?
YEAR 2 You need to ensure
the momentum from Year 1 is
continued. Your level of 5S must
be maintained, and new projects
implemented. New staff must
be trained in Lean concepts and
participate in change.
YEAR 3 Is the time to focus on
really shifting the key performance
indicators you set for the business.
By this stage, Lean will have
become the new way of thinking in
your organisation, and you’ll really
see your efforts paying off. Lean will
require less intensive activity than
in Years 1 and 2, and you’ll find your
staff coming up with ideas which
have been costed and which have a
clear ROI.

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MINDSET NOT TOOLS
LEAN IS NOT JUST A BUNCH
OF ESTABLISHED TOOLS
LIKE 5S, KANBAN OR VALUE
STREAM MAPPING THAT ARE
USED TO IMPROVE YOUR
PROCESS. USING THESE TOOLS
IS A GOOD THING AND YOU
WILL GET A BENEFIT.
However becoming Lean really
means adopting a continuous
improvement mindset. To use an
analogy, the Lean tools themselves
are like the fruit on the tree.
Those established Lean tools are
simply the result of a number of
(mainly Toyota) people, over time,
continually looking and re-looking
at the manufacturing processes and
trying to improve. The tree itself,
which produces the fruit, is the drive
and attitude to continually improve.
Incidentally, after spending
a number of years in Toyota,
including a few years in head office
in Japan, I never once heard the
word ‘Lean’ used. Discussions
about improvement centred mainly
on tangible objectives such as ‘time
saving’, ‘cost reduction’, ‘material
reduction’ etc.. The word Kaizen
or Continuous Improvement was
commonly used and was a strongly
held principle for everyone in the
business.
Continuous improvement is an idea
that genuinely lives in the hearts
and minds of their employees.
So, from time to time I get a
question about Lean principles from
clients…
“Should I change from batch
production to single piece flow?”
“Should we implement Kanban in
this area to control stock?”
“Should I store less stock on the
line and implement a milk run to
replenish stock?”etc. The simple
answer is “I don’t know”.
A better question to ask “As a
result of this change how much
time will be saved? How much will
stock reduce by? How will delivery
lead-times improve?” etc.. If you
know the answer to that question,
then most likely you don’t require
anyone’s 2nd opinion.
Teaching people Lean principles
and how to use Lean tools is good
and useful.
However, more important than
this is for team members to gain a
mindset of “there must be a better
way” or “how can we do this
better?”

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MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
IF YOU ARE DOING THINGS RIGHT, YOU AND THE TEAM SHOULD
BE EXCITED & MOTIVATED TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS.
However, and this is where the long term plan comes in, you need to be
realistic about what can be sustainably achieved in a short period of time.
Expect resistance and some difficulty. You need to meet that with a calm and
consistent approach.
Most Lean initiatives go through the following cycle:
B: Realisation of the complexity
and effort needed to make and
sustain the change. Once teams
are formed and tasks assigned,
people begin to realise more
concretely what they are required
to do. Some struggle with the new
Lean ideas initially, some may feel
overwhelmed with the requirement
to do something outside their
normal day to day role. “Oh no
this is going to take some time
and effort- argh!” At this point the
leadership needs to be calm and
consistent and stay the course.
A: Excitement and positivity about
the potential for change.
Team members are enthusiastic
about the change. The vision
and the strategy have been
communicated and the leadership
team have demonstrated the
importance of the initiative by
actively participating themselves.
Everyone has been assigned some
level of responsibility and there is a
sense of team. “It’s all upside from
here, right? What’s not to like?”

15. 14www.vative.com.au
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Be aware of the emotional cycle that
individuals & the business will go through
on the Lean journey
Be realistic about how much change
can be effectively implemented and
sustained by the business & plan
accordingly
Stay the course when things get tough
C: Breakthrough occurs and some
results begin to show.
Eventually with persistence, strong
leadership and support, the results
of your Lean initiative will begin to
show.
Perhaps 5S is delivering some less
cluttered and more organised
workplaces. A couple of the easier
projects are being implemented
and are working well. These initial
quick wins should be celebrated
loudly and widely within the
organisation.
The support and positive
reinforcement by the leadership
group at this time is critical and
it provides the impetus and
momentum for the rest of the
team to continue their efforts.
D: Things are clearly better than
before. With continued effort by
all the teams and ongoing support
& mentoring the Lean initiative
will yield results. The process has
improved and there are clear
benefits to the organisation.
The results achieved should be
summarised, documented and
communicated. You want to use this
success to justify further activity to
continue the momentum for your
Lean journey.
•
•
•

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FORMALITY & STRUCTURE
CLEARLY DEFINED AND SIMPLE
FOLLOW UP & REPORTING
STRUCTURES PLAY A LARGE
ROLE IN ENSURING THAT THE
ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY
GENERATED AT THE START
OF YOUR LEAN PROGRAM
IS FOCUSED AND APPLIED
CONSISTENTLY OVER THE
ENTIRE TIME FRAME.
3. Defined Frequency of
when Project Team Leader will
communicate with team
4. Defined Frequency of when
Project Team Leaders report to
Management
5. Visualisation in workplace of
Project Progress. We should be able
to tell at a glance how all projects
are tracking (ahead? behind?) and
what the next action is.
Even if it is only quarterly the
leadership team should be
overseeing and & steering the
activity that is making your
organisation more Lean. There
needs to be a plan with a start,
a finish and expected outcomes
along the way. It is recommended
to regularly review progress of your
Lean initiative based on the plan,
regardless of whether its good, bad
or otherwise. Good governance is
your friend!
Do people know what’s expected of
them?
Has everyone been assigned to a
team with a clearly defined project?
How are we progressing?
Doing well?
Falling behind?
Are there follow up & review
meetings?
Does management actually care
if I continue to work on my Lean
projects or should it be 2nd or 3rd
priority?
There are many different methods
of setting these structures up, in
most cases they should include the
following:
1. Clear Definition of Project Team
Leader, Team Members and Task
Responsibilities
2. Defined Frequency of when
Project Team Leaders report to
Project Coach

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ENGAGE ALL LEVELS
THE BEST RESULTS OF LEAN IMPLEMENTATION COME WHEN YOU
INVOLVE, IN SOME WAY, ALL LEVELS OF THE ORGANISATION.
Lean is most effective when it is driven
from the top down and the bottom
up. The leadership team need to set
the strategy and approve time and
resources to spend implementing.
The frontline management team
need to be responsible for specific
and clearly defined project activity.
The operations level of the business
need to understand, participate and
implement the changes.
Naturally the amount of time and
hands-on effort the CEO of the
business puts into Lean will be far
less than a Lean project champion.
However everyone in the organisation
needs to be engaged and taking
part.
If we only engage with one level of
the organisation then division and
conflicting priorities can quickly
develop. For example a common and
usually less than successful approach
to Lean can be to engage only the
frontline team leaders. Perhaps as an
initiative of a particular department
manager or HR function. The team
leaders are trained and then made
accountable for the change. However
Lean isn’t on the business’ strategic
plan so senior management aren’t
actively engaged and resources
don’t get deployed. The operations
level don’t understand what Lean
is all about and are sluggish to
respond to their team leaders’
requests. Resistance can set in and
results stagnate. Any results that do
eventuate, generally come down
to the ability of the individual team
leader to sell the particular project
or change to management and his
team. It relies on a degree of bull
dozing and the hurdle to clear for
success is set high.
We need all members of the team
understanding the part they need
to play and pulling in the same
direction.

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DON’T BE TIMID
A TEPID APPROACH WILL PRODUCE A TEPID RESULT. BY ALL
MEANS, IF YOU NEED TO, TRY APPLYING LEAN IN A SMALL
AND CONTROLLED AREA/PART OF THE BUSINESS. THAT’S FINE;
HOWEVER THE PURPOSE OF THIS TRIAL SHOULDN’T BE…
If you exclude parts of the
organisation then you create
division.
People who understand Lean versus
people who don’t, people who
are motivated to change versus
people who aren’t. This makes
things harder. So to be specific you
need to include admin processes,
sales processes, management,
purchasing, HR etc. Opportunities
for improvement don’t stop at the
borders of departments.
For an overall and sustained result
you eventually need to reach a
tipping point in terms of number of
people and departments involved.
“Let’s see if this Lean stuff is
worthwhile”.
This is the wrong question. Lean
works, it is effective, and is being
used by your competitors to get
ahead.
If a controlled trial is necessary then
its purpose should be “Let’s trial
the implementation approach and
refine it before a broader roll out”
Lean isn’t only for the operational
part of the organisation (the
manufacturing area, the nursing
staff, the call centre personnel
etc.) and should be adopted
company wide. You want all parts
of the business speaking the same
language and understanding the
need to improve.

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WE’RE GREAT! WHAT’S NEXT?
LASTLY WHEN SUCCESS WITH LEAN DOES COME, YOU WANT
TO MAKE SURE THAT IT’S NOT SEEN AS A ONE OFF PROJECT
AND FORGOTTEN. IT CAN HAPPEN THAT WITH A GOOD RESULT
PEOPLE WILL QUICKLY ‘PAT THEMSELVES ON THE BACK’ AND
BECOME COMPLACENT.
Keys to ensure complacency
doesn’t set in:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The standards of 5S may start to
slip slightly, no new Lean initiatives
are kicked off, some old habits may
resurface.
Don’t be surprised if this happens,
and also don’t be too hard on
yourself if this does occur. At this
point some of the original “nay
sayers” can latch onto the fact
that things have slipped and hold
it up to say “you see I told you it
wouldn’t work!”
This kind of negativity can start a
downward spiral of even further
regression.
What’s important is to notice the
overall long term trend. Things are
more than likely still better than
they were before you began your
Lean journey.
Lean needs to be included
on your strategic plan and
embedded in people’s roles
and what’s expected of them
Ensure some Lean Projects
are always in progress in the
business
Continue 5S activity and
audits, however reduce to an
appropriate frequency (perhaps
only monthly or once a quarter)
Train new starts on Lean thinking
and make sure they participate in
improvement
Don’t let the ‘nay sayers’ hijack
the agenda.

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WHAT YOU’VE JUST READ HAS BEEN INFORMED
BY MANY YEARS OF LEAN IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE
AND LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS.
I HOPE YOU’VE FOUND IT USEFUL.
If you’re interested to know more about how we help organisations just like
yours implement Lean successfully & sustainably…
OPTION A :
Take me up on a free offer to
discuss where your organisation
is currently on its Lean journey
and how Vative can help you to
achieve its improvement goals. We
may even be able to get some
government support & grants
Damien Lacey
damien.lacey@vative.com.au
0408 416 242 or 1300 VATIVE
OR
OPTION B :
Keep doing what you are doing.