ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a new approach to how Human Resources (HR) can strengthen and sustain a company’s lean strategy. It presents a model that demonstrates how an organization can be more successful by fully utilizing HR’s leadership in the process. A commitment to measuring improvement involves much more than changing a few key processes. It demands an ongoing evaluation of most or all processes, and is critical to successful lean initiatives. Lean practitioners use standardized processes as a foundation for helping employees to understand how each step in the workflow links to the next. People possess considerable wisdom, judgment, and creativity that can help any organization solve a wide range of issues or problems. A lean culture builds on the idea that teams are more successful than individuals. Leadership in a lean culture takes on a much more important role because its primary goal is to develop and empower people.
