ABSTRACT
The waste of people’s abilities has been the main focus of Lean, or continuous improvement, efforts. Yet many (if not the majority of) improvement initiatives have failed to achieve expected results over time because the efforts never achieved substantial changes in daily behaviors. This chapter begins with the excuses companies make about why they say their efforts fail and then explores the real reasons. Lean efforts have failed in the past due to a lack of approaching the process as a complete cultural change. The reasons for failure can be offset with success factors that have strong links to areas of HR, making it an important aspect of why HR must be involved.
