Lean management as a strategy for a successful future

Daniel Odermatt, CEO of Leancom GmbH, welcomed over 300 attendees together with moderator Reto Lipp, well-known as a business journalist for Swiss television. A considerable number of participants, which indicates that Lean Management has become a topic to be taken seriously in more and more companies. Because the stakes are high: Switzerland as an industrial location is under constant pressure. The proverbial high Swiss production quality alone is no longer enough to hold its own against the competition in the long term. What is needed is a rethink of processes and agility in the competitive environment - accompanied, of course, by continuous improvements in production and service quality. How this "squaring of the circle" can be achieved was the subject of the various presentations, which were discussed both in plenary sessions and in smaller sessions.

Lean luminary from Japan
Hitoshi Takeda, a personality known worldwide as a "lean icon", spoke at the Swiss Lean Congress. As a trained engineer, he helped to introduce various improvements at Toyota and advised over 100 industrial partners of this car manufacturer. Today he heads the company SPS Consulting and advises customers on the creation of production cells. Hitoshi Takeda spoke about the possibilities of the Synchronous Production System (SPS) for SMEs. SPS is an integrated management system that synchronizes all processes (from purchasing to production to delivery). The intention is to thoroughly eliminate any waste (jap. "muda"). The goal is to change the nature of the company so that it can respond appropriately to the ongoing market diversification - and to do so with high supply quality at lower manufacturing costs. In this way, the company can survive the changeable fierce international competition and is armed against recessions. According to Hitoshi Takeda, the management of a company should keep an eye on four key figures: lead time (this should be kept as low as possible or shortened, especially in administrative processes), quality (for example by defining a defect rate of 10 PPM, i.e. less than 1 defective piece per year, achieved through consistent process monitoring), productivity (improvement through organization by means of autonomous teams) and competence development management (i.e. continuous training of employees). However, the speaker did not gloss over the fact that the introduction of lean thinking in companies goes hand in hand with overcoming hurdles. The biggest hurdle, he said, was the awareness of individual employees. Therefore, he said, it has to be about changing people and their culture. "Invest five percent of your time in employee development. Strengthen the team and the community spirit, but also clearly set the pace," Hitoshi Takeda told the audience.

"Lean Healthcare" and Kaizen
In the further course of the morning, the focus was on best practice, initially in the healthcare sector (Lean Healthcare). Jürg Aebi, CEO of the Baselland Cantonal Hospital, titled his presentation "Do you communicate in a regulated manner or do you still have meetings? Good communication requires clear management structures, transparency, good planning and discipline, he said beforehand. "With clear table management, short huddle meetings and gemba walks, we are replacing the previously lengthy, overloaded and time-consuming meetings at the Baselland Cantonal Hospital," Aebi finally revealed the recipe for success. In this way, a lean pilot project was able to significantly reduce the "time-to-doctor" and the number of telephone calls. Processes were also standardized and better structured. As a result, patient satisfaction increased.

Leancom founder Oliver Mattmann then focused his presentation on Kaizen. "Every eighth hour the company stands still! Is that insane or clever?" - was the rhetorical question with which Mattmann titled his presentation. Behind this was the observation that in many companies there were enough ideas for improvements. However, these are rarely implemented because too much time is invested in talking and in meetings instead of in doing. But at the same time, regular and defined improvement time must be planned and adhered to without exceptions, according to a central requirement for prospective "lean enterprises". Taking time for improvements is therefore not madness, but clever.

Transformation to Lean Management as a Challenge
After lunch, the eager audience gathered again, as Niklas Modig, author of the widely read classic "This is Lean", took the stage. A highlight, because his visits to Switzerland can be counted on one hand. With impressive case studies, he explained the possibilities of Lean Thinking in and outside the healthcare sector.

Healthcare was once again the topic of the presentation by Prof. Dr. oec. HSG Alfred Angerer, Head of the Healthcare Management Unit at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW. "How do you slay the seven dragons on the road to lean in healthcare? " he asked. And these seven dragons have it all: there is the "everything-in-butter dragon", which says that there is no problem at all in one's own organization. The whining dragon complains - in the health care sector - about the high pressure, the drowning dragon has no time for process optimization and the doomsayer dragon is convinced that this "won't work for us". Then comes the euphoria dragon who says "Lean always helps! " while the craftsman dragon calls for more lean tools. And the headless dragon wonders, "What do we do with Digital Health?" So, a plethora of challenges that many healthcare organizations can relate to.

Digitalization as a "friend" of Lean?
And of course there is also the topic of "digitalization", which is also on the minds of the "lean" community. René Brugger, President of the Swiss Technology Network, spoke about the "friendship" between lean and digitalization and used various examples to show where the journey could lead in the future. Above all, industry will increasingly be about batch size 1. "Consistent digitalization, standardized variance and lean processes will bring flexibility, fast delivery and competitive pricing," says Baumer, a manufacturer of sensors. And the valve manufacturer Seitz wants to guarantee "delivery within a few weeks (from sales directly into the machine)". All this can only succeed if the skills of the employees in production are promoted accordingly.

Showing how "Lean" works - and that it can be done
Other examples of best practice were presented in the afternoon by Franz Bollhalder, Head of Production at Andermatt Biocontrol AG, and Fabian Furrer from Bystronic Laser AG. The former explained to the audience how lean transformation succeeded in his company and what hurdles had to be overcome in the process - for example, the change in management from specialists or managers to coaches. This resulted, for example, in the positive experience that creativity in teams has increased and the feedback culture has improved. Fabian Furrer, on the other hand, presented the "Lean Logistics" concept, which, through targeted measures, showed significant benefits as well as some "learnings" ("miracles take a little longer"). Finally, Axel Maltzen from the medical products manufacturer Medartis explained how his company had set up its own production system in the wake of the "Swiss franc shock" in 2015, based on the Toyota North Star. And Reto Frei from Leancom showed some "practical hints" in his presentation on how everyday administrative work can be made leaner, for example by using an office floor board to avoid "procrastination".

The conference, which in addition to the above-mentioned presentations also featured discussion rounds, workshops and a VIP round table, was then closed by astronaut Claude Nicollier with his remarks on the subject of "Failure is not an option". He took the audience on a journey through the history of space exploration and used impressive images to provide insights into his own missions in space. "If you really want it, you can do it", was his conclusion - something that can certainly also apply to the implementation of lean management in one's own company.