They are ALL wrong from a lean perspective!!!
They are using a traditional paradigm (Value is how I define it, everyone needs to be fully utilized) instead of Lean Paradigm (Value is defined from the customer's perspective, Flow is more important that utilization). Even people who are trying to transition to a Lean culture may be caught in this trap - Let's try to make Lean work in a traditional environment, with traditional measures. Management is usually the culprit, they want the improvement that Lean promises, they just want to change their own behaviors and measures. They end up awarding psuedo lean efforts, since they aren't seeing any improvement in Net Profit.
Improving flow means improving that workstation that most restricts flow - the constraint or the bottleneck. Management should focus on improving flow through the bottleneck, Maintenance should concentrate on improving flow on the bottleneck (even if it doesn't have the worst downtime, worst MTTR, or worst MCBF). Production should actually we working to REDUCE the utilization of the bottleneck - the bottleneck in a system usually has the highest efficiency and utilization, because is does not spend a lot of time blocked and starved.
The solution ultimately rests with management. They must use Hoshin Kanri planning to get everyone on the same page. They must implement Lean Accounting to make sure we evaluate progress with a dollar sign, to indicate true progress that hits the bottom line. They must 5S their measures, using Lean Metrics to create lean behaviors. This is due to the basic fact that people behave how they are measured. Efficiency and utilization aren't lean metrics, it turns out, but traditional measures. Finally, management must set up a system to find the bottleneck, and then continuously improve the bottleneck.
Bottom line - Traditional accounting and traditional measures can not co-exist with Lean methods and behaviors. The result will be what are currently seeing - local optimization and redefining measures to demonstrate progress, since bottom line impact are not appearing.
Kevin Kohls
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