Earlier this week, USA Today ran an article on how manufacturing companies are using lean principles to survive the recession. Among other things, the article highlights that as many as 61 percent of the manufacturers surveyed are said to be “implementing lean operating principles” during the downturn. The examples are all focused on the production line, and as always in a lean transformation, report astounding gains in productivity in short periods of time. But because these changes were implemented to save costs during the recession, I find myself wondering just how profound and lasting they’ll be.

This isn’t to say that changes implemented during an economic downturn, which have clearly resulted in dramatic improvement, will be suddenly forgotten just because “times are better” and everything will go back to the status quo. But if managers become too relaxed as soon as the economy rebounds (some feel may already be happening) and profits take a turn for the better, there’s a good chance that lean transformation may stop at the very basics: reduced inventories, teamwork, piece-flow as opposed to batch production – all that on the factory floor. This is all well and good, but it seems limited when taking into account the full potential of lean. Why not continue the transformation through the rest of the value chain, both upstream and downstream?

Will companies continue to extend lean principles to departments like product development, sales, HR, marketing, IT and other functions? Will they be continuously improving and always seeking perfection? This would reflect the lean enterprise that guru Jim Womack describes in his books. As a proponent of Lean principles in IT, I often feel that too few companies have extended their lean operations to their information management function. Perhaps this is because they find it difficult to translate lean, which is so easily seen in the “real”, physical world of manufacturing, to the more “abstract” world of IT. Perhaps it’s because the gains received from IT seem to be less significant when compared to the gains to be realized in manufacturing. Or perhaps it’s simply because it’s a lot of work, it involves engaging vendors in the transformation, the toolbox is not clearly known or understood, and there are too few examples to be followed.

In any case, I’m glad to see that a few marquee corporations recently presented their Lean IT success stories in a recent Forrester Research
conference. My hope is that the CIOs of those 61 percent of manufacturers that reported to be implementing lean have a chance to hear these stories. And I hope that the optimism that will follow does not stop the lean transformation, especially after the pessimism we have witnessed over the last year. It would be too bad for the economy, and it would be too bad for those of us that want to foster lean principles in IT operations.

Leonardo Mattiazzi, VP International Business, Ci&T

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