Less than 20% of companies implementing any form of Lean related improvement programme manage to achieve worthwhile results. Effectively, 80% or more of companies fail to complete the Lean Marathon!

My experiences of working with a wide range of manufacturing and service sectors companies who have suffered problems with their improvement programmes has led me to the realisation that to be truly successful at implementing any form of improvement programme (including Lean) and achieve sustainable results in the medium to long-term, an organisation must display three key attributes:

1: Effective Skills: This is concerned with ensuring the organisation has sufficient understanding of the techniques and processes to be implemented. Companies with high levels of skill usually have access to one or more well trained facilitators who will lead the change process and will also carry out the training for the rest of the staff so that they have a basic understanding of the tools and techniques to be applied. Companies with high levels of skill have the technical understanding of how the change process will work, but can be brought down by a lack of management enthusiasm or a demoralised workforce.

2: Management Motivation: This is concerned with the management motivation for change and the associated focus of time, effort and money from managers to make the improvement programme happen. Organisations with high levels of motivation are easy to spot because the management team speak enthusiastically about change, take an active interest in the change process, make time to visit