How long does it take
to be Lean?

Top managers on the verge to commit to Lean may want to know how long the journey will take, although they understand it's a never ending journey.
The Agamus Consult Automotive Lean Production study brings some answers.

The study

Goal of this European "Automotive Lean Production" study is to assess the maturity and performance of automotive firms using lean principles, which model is the Toyota Production System.
This survey is conducted each year since 2006 by Agamus Consult in collaboration with the magazine AUTOMOBIL PRODUKTION.

Amongst questions to participants are those relatively to duration of Lean transformation, what maturity is actually reached and what are the tangible results?
Five deployement phases are proposed:

• Phase 1 : thinking about it, not yet started
• Phase 2 : start, pilots projects started, some encouraging results have been measured
• Phase 3 : deployment is well engaged, sustainable improvements are done
• Phase 4 : advanced, most of departments implemented lean principles, tools and methods
• Phase 5 : almost all employees and managers understand, live and act accordingly to lean principles

Analyzing data returned by respondants show that each leap from one phase to next phase needs an average of two years.
Hence, one can understand it takes about 10 years for an entity, starting with low maturity / knowledge to culturally installed lean principles.

This transformation impacting the personel's paradigme, it needs change management efforts and time.
Just as growth of a plant cannot be accelerated by pulling on it, it makes no sense to implement basic lean bricks if personel are not able to understand the underlying logic nor ready to use them.
Nevertheless, as one would do to favor the plant's growth, it's meaningfull to set all necessary conditions for understanding and buy-in.

Paradoxically...

The European "Automotive Lean Production" survey shows that some entreprises having long lasting experience about Lean display significantly higher degree of implementation and consistency than average. Henceforth the survey shows a strong correlation between deployment stage, or maturity, and performance.

One paradox revealed by the survey is the existence of "Fast Performers" (about 10% ofparticipants), reaching Lean Performance scores faster than others, with higher implementation grade.

The champion among Fast Performers participants since 2006 reached outstanding results in three years only, when similar scores took about twelve years for the best among the "classic" entreprises.

Some "Lean bricks" able to speed up results and usually implemented late (require maturity) helped Fast Performers to reach their outstanding results, tools, techniques and most advanced methods:

• flexibles cells (Flexible Manpower Cells)
• levelling
• supplier development
• fast changeovers

Are those fast result lasting? The answer is yes.

One Fast Performer example can be found in greenfield, among a group already mature and experienced about lean, settling down a new plant. Greenfield plants are designed to be Lean from the begining, flows have been studied and optimized long before building construction, an advantage hard to compensate by elder plants.

Personel newly hired are already familiar or trained to lean principles. These personel are likely to accept a lean organizatio model as there reference, without having to fight the long change management fight.

These units are likely to be found in eastern Europe where automotive suppliers settled down, or some times in "old Europe", for instance in case of a new comer setting up a brand new lean factory.

Fast Performers exist and their performance is sustainable.

Conclusion

The answer to the question "how long does it take to be Lean?" keeps dependant upon starting conditions, initial maturity and lean "bricks" already deployed.

However, "Automotive Lean Production" survey shows that firms engaging the "classic" journey on lean transformation will take 3 to 4 more time than those starting greenfield with already aware personel.