ABSTRACT
Over the past several decades, there has been a gigantic shift in perspective, at least in many quarters, regarding the constitution of effective manufacturing processes. This has been largely brought about by the introduction of Lean Manufacturing and corresponding Lean principles. We have already reviewed several instances in which Packard, in an effort to become “leaner” through the introduction of Lean principles, actually did anything but accomplish that. As we discussed, based on my observations and suppositions, this occurred due to a lack of confidence on the part of key managers that they knew the right answers, an unwillingness on the part of many managers to challenge directives from top executives even when major disagreement existed, and a lack of understanding on the part of many executives of the consequences of making some of the bad decisions that were made (although the ramifications were generally very easy to predict).
