Comments on: Green is the New Lean?

By: Bob Turek

Bob Turek — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:44 +0000

Gina- it is awesome- my experience with lean is in manufacturing companies – food is definitely different in terms of more reliance on equipment, batches of stuff and high variability throughout the process. A lot of office processes are very predictable in comparison- the idea there is standardizing and eliminating wasteful action and motion. Fun stuff!

By: gina

gina — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:30:50 +0000

Hi Bob – I don’t have any examples that would fit into the comment section of a blog but I could bore you with an abstract I wrote on the subject ;)

Sure it’s more about setting up an environement anc culture. I guess I’m referring more to lean, the verb. In my organization we’ve picked apart almost every single process and through process improvement I believe we are running about as lean as we can until our external environment changes.

Lean in the food industry – that sounds awesome!

By: Bob Turek

Bob Turek — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:21:32 +0000

Hi Gina- thanks for commenting. Lean is an interesting concept- to me it is setting up an environment and culture that fosters continual improvement. There is no end and there are always “breakthroughs” that can make a big difference. True, you tend to “run out” but then a breakthrough occurs. Toyota is the best example of that- they’ve got it right. Very few US companies have made the complete culture change, although many claim to be lean experts. I’m currently researching “lean” culture in the food industry- it’s a fascinating area. I’m really interested in your lean experience- do you have an example or two of “hitting the wall” in an area? Also, any examples of breakthroughs?
Thanks.

By: gina

gina — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:44:45 +0000

I absolutely think that green is the new lean. It’s funny that you mention this because my employer has called on all 6000 employees to submit one idea on how they can save money and the only things that I can think of seem to be related to green initiatives.

If you work in an organization that has been running (or trying to) lean for a while then chances are you’ve reached a lean plateau. To squeeze out any more lean-ness (is that a word?) we’ve got to look outside the lean norm to things like green iniatives. Great post, Bob!