ABSTRACT

In the initial weeks and months of the Lean initiative, the organization will rely on external experts to bring education and Lean techniques to the office. This will help the organization launch the program, but there must be internal resources available to learn from the external experts and then to extend the practices throughout the organization. Over time, as the improvement techniques and tools are practiced throughout the organization, the need for this reporting relationship diminishes. However, until the Lean culture takes hold, the Lean program will need emphasis within the organization and a degree of positional power to push it forward. Arranging for Lean consultants to work in pairs provides a way to share knowledge and build skills across the internal Lean consulting teams. The Lean team is often called upon to tackle some tough problems, and having two people to gather the knowledge on a value stream and then co-facilitate the Lean workshop is highly effective.