Leader standard work (LSW) is the highest leverage element in a lean management system. It closes the loop on process focus and keeps it closed. But, leader standard work is NOT the starting point. A value proposition comes first, one that answers the universal question, “What’s in it for me?” The value proposition holds that if you like the reduction in daily chaos and firefighting from the tools of lean production, lean management and LSW will sustain the benefits and deliver a better day at work.

For leaders at a tactical level, from team lead to plant or unit, lean tools improve performance and stability. So understanding the nuts and bolts of lean applications makes sense to these leaders. But, it is the rare executive, even from an operations background, who’s interested in learning to assess or apply the nuts and bolts of lean’s tools. Yet, it’s by gemba walking executives on these very nuts and bolts that internal “leansters” try to engage their executives in lean.

It doesn’t work, executives disengage from being gemba walked as a lean apprentice, and the lean initiative is at risk of being supplanted by the next ‘big thing’ that promises painless improvement and captures their attention.

This webinar covers concepts and application of lean management, emphasizing the role and development of LSW, developing LSW that’s meaningful in the reality of daily leadership and daily improvement. It casts LSW as a development discipline versus mere compliance, and details the rationale, approach, process and tools.

This will engage senior leaders in the lean initiative through LSW that’s meaningful to them personally and professionally in terms of their unique managerial responsibilities.

David Mann is the author of Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions. The book, awarded the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, is an international bestseller in its field, translated into six languages. The book introduced the behaviors, practices and tools of a lean management system, including leader standard work, to the lean community. The third edition was published in 2014.

Mann’s consulting, teaching and coaching experience includes lean transformation in manufacturing, enterprise business processes and healthcare organizations. His practice includes clients in healthcare, mining and energy, discrete and process manufacturing, medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing, distribution, technology, food processing as well as enterprise business processes. Learn more at www.dmannlean.com.

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