Fighting Cynicism in Operations: How Lean Works in Spite of Organizational Change

Almost everyone's seen some version of this: You've got a great system in place that's producing measurable improvements, but your company gets a new division head or president or CEO, and some new shiny object becomes the focus.  Ever wanted to ask an implementation person how they handle that? At the IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit this summer, an audience member put the question that bluntly to Marty Hallman, director of bearing operations at The Timken Co. Like most of us, Hallman's been through that sort of turmoil, and he explained how Timken keeps going with lean management principles, even when leadership changes. Joining Hallman was Sam McPherson, president of the Lean Leadership Academy. In addition to talking leadership change, they discussed how to develop leaders internally, how to implement production-improving strategies and how to get the most of the training time they spend with up-and-coming leaders.