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The veritable wrench in your lean machine may be lurking in your office. According to a not-so-recent study conducted by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), a nonprofit management research center, middle managers resistant to change are the No. 1 obstacle in implementing lean production.
LEI's annual survey, completed by around 2,500 business people, revealed that middle manger resistance was cited by 36.1 percent of respondents; next in line, lack of implementation know-how at 31 percent and employee resistance at 27.7 percent.
Chairman and founder of the LEI, James Womack, concludes that the introduction of the lean business system exposes existing problems within traditional business systems, threatening the middle managers in those areas.
The latest findings were based on more than 2,400 responses to a survey distributed electronically to 77,200 subscribers to LEI's monthly e-letter. Respondents were asked to select all applicable obstacles from a list of 12 possibilities. In the year prior, the No. 1 obstacle was cited as backsliding to the old way — followed by lack of implementation know-how and middle management resistance. LEI has surveyed managers and executives annually about the major obstacles they encountered in transforming their companies from mass production to lean.
Conquering the Wrench
Wood Digest asked Tony Manos, a catalyst who helps companies implement lean from point solutions to full implementation in all industries. Manos' background includes training through the National Institute of Standards and Technology Department of Commerce and serving as the past chair of the Lean Enterprise Division of ASQ.
In Manos' opinion, the core reason lean implementation fails can be traced back to top management.
"Without having top management actively involved in the process — and when I say actively involved they can't just nod their head and say, 'yeah, this is a good idea, make someone else go do it' — it is difficult to get these lean improvements to stick," Manos says.
At the top management level, he says, one must be aware of both active resisters, but more crucially, the passive resisters — the ones who never say they're against it; they just nod and smile, and never do anything with it.
"In the middle management level we run the same gambit," says Manos. "Middle management can be the biggest resisting group — even larger than value adders who are usually the hourly staff. [Middle managers] resist more because they typically are the ones who created the processes in question."
A common argument of the active resisters, especially in successful companies, is: If it's been working for years, in some cases, decades, why would we need to change? Manos recommends reminding them that change is necessary because your customers are changing, and a quick way to make them realize the level of change is to ask them: Have customers' demands grown increasingly in the last five years? Do you anticipate they will get less demanding five years in the future?
"After they respond, I say, 'See, these are the reasons we need to change to be more of a lean enterprise," he says.
Many times, middle managers either don't think there are improvements that need to be made, or they don't think it is possible to make improvements because they feel their hands are tied by upper management.
Again, it is important to be aware of both active and passive resisters.
"Everybody is not going to be on board, but what you're trying to do is find out — who is on board and who isn't — and what you should do about them," Manos says.
Manos notes that by the time you go down to the hourly level, it's pretty much a bell curve of willing or unwilling employees.
"You'll get some people who love it, pick up on it right away, and then you'll get the same number of people who want to be anchors and won't want to change whatsoever, and the rest of the group falls into early adopters or late adopters," he says. "Both types of adaptors will go along with the program, but they want to see someone else do it first, or want to see if management is actually going to stick with this or if it's just another flavor of the month."
In order to combat resistance, one has to be able to prove that it works. Manos offers three strategies to demonstrate that lean concepts work:
- Organize lean exercises in pilot groups within the company.
- Schedule visits to other companies who have successfully implemented lean.
- Enlist a number of experts so they can evaluate numerous sources of input.
"What will happen is either they will have this epiphany or they don't," he says. "If it takes them a little while — that's fine because you can work with them. You should be more concerned about those who will never make that turn."
Manos suggests upper management should consider alternatives for the managers who refuse to change.
"Maybe there are better positions within the company that might be suited for them," he says. "Or, there is the other extreme and it might be time to help them transition out. I hate to say that, but sometimes that has to happen."
To motivate middle managers, upper management should put long-term reward and recognition programs in place, i.e., a bonus program or profit sharing or something related to the success of the company's lean goals and objectives.
author: Jackie Roembke