HR’s Role in the Lean Organizational Journey

Abstract

rganizations ranging from hospitals to manufacturing struggle to find sustainable continuous improvement methods. The complexities and interrelationships of such organizations require that continuous improvement efforts be broad and self-reinforcing. This need has generated dozens of initiatives from business and academia including the implementation of balanced scorecards, re-engineering, 360-degree performance reviews and Total Quality Management, to name a few. Most may provide partial solutions to the organizational need for continuous improvement. With trade barriers, information barriers and cost-of-business barriers dropping, competitiveness is increasing. Organizations need good products, good brands, good strategies, good partnerships, good people and good financial resources to succeed. In addition, however, an organization cannot succeed perpetually without continuous improvement—a fact across the board, from manufacturing plants to banks to hospitals to nonprofits. How should an organization embark on this all-important task? One solution is to transform an organization using “lean.” Lean is not a new concept. According to James Womack and Daniel Jones,

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