Lean Management

Consultancy and implementation

At the beginning of each engagement, it is essential to experience and to understand the client’s unique situation. We achieve this by working closely with managers and other staff to ensure the necessary transparency. We then prioritize and begin to implement our concept.

Throughout the entire consultancy, we stress the importance of practical implementation and customer value. We share our expertise and years of experience, guided by the principle that we show you how to do it; we work with you; and then you take it forward.

(Lean) Culture Development

We believe that a successful implementation of Lean methods goes hand-in-hand with developing people and organizations. It is therefore essential that we establish an appropriate, clear direction that takes into consideration our client’s current stage of development. To foster success, we work closely with our clients to develop joint objectives and help them with the implementation. An important aspect of our services is that we aim to develop the organization so that the company can autonomously “carry the torch” forward.

Basic principles of our work:

  • From the start, affected employees, works council members, and managers are actively involved
  • We support managers throughout the organizational change process, with an emphasis on leadership behaviors
  • Pragmatic guidance of the change process
  • We do not use a standard blueprint but instead emphasize a tailor-made development process that fosters positive sustainable change
  • We treat resources with care to avoid unnecessary costs

Improving results

Sustainable cost reduction

Unfortunately, many managers see no other way to reduce costs and improve results. Consequently, production is often moved to low-wage countries. To add value under high wage conditions, a company needs to apply expert knowledge throughout the value chain with a strong focus on increasing productivity, also in non-production areas. Particularly important issues in this context include:

  • Developing a continuous improvement culture (organizational development)
  • Improving the productivity of labor, capital equipment, materials and energy
  • Improving quality
  • Reducing cycle time
  • Reducing “total costs”

One of the strengths of Lean Competence Partners is our ability to identify practical solutions that include the subsequent development of feasible implementation plans. In the implementation phase, the objective is to introduce our clients’ managers and staff to Lean methods and to develop appropriate, consistent behaviors at all levels. Our experience has taught us that sustainable continuous optimization of the value chain is more likely to succeed when all levels of management and employees are involved. A strong collaboration with our client teams, based on unequivocal trust and respect, will facilitate this process.

Laying the groundwork with structured analysis of potential improvements

To augment value-added work, we focus on reducing or even eliminating unnecessary work for which customers are not willing to pay. Accordingly, holistic and low-cost intelligent improvements in all areas of the value chain can be implemented and achieved. The aim is smart work, not hard work, but it can be a bumpy road. Employees at all levels of an organization who engage Lean methods, however, can experience high levels of satisfaction, because they can play an active part in bringing about positive change.

Using a systematic approach, our Company Potential Analysis encourages employees and managers to take an active part, working together with Lean Competence Partners experts in a core team. For one factory or a company with up to 200 employees, we normally require a week to analyze the potential to be able to identify the main areas of focus, to estimate approximate savings potential, and to prioritize various aspects in the change process.

KAIZEN Weeks

To kick-start work improvement with employees, we recommend moderated workshops. Our experts teach the essential Lean Tools and methods in these workshops and apply them directly to concrete problems. This creates a high level of acceptance among the employees concerned and ensures that agreed goals are effectively implemented.

Supplier development as partners

Additional improvements with costs, cycle time, and quality are possible by including key suppliers in the value chain improvement process. Our years of experience are there to support your optimization of the entire value stream through supplier development.

Inhouse-Training and Workshops

We offer in-house training courses for all aspects of Lean, always based on practical solutions relevant to the client company.

Extract from our training offer:

  • 1 to 2 days on selected Lean Tools
  • Lean Leadership Workshops
  • Lean Green Belt Training (5 days training plus project work)
  • Lean Administration Training (3 days training plus project work)
  • Agile Moderation
  • …