This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Assembly Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Assembly Magazine logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
    • Specs Book
    • How-To-Guide
    • Buyers Guide
  • Exclusives
    • Plant of the Year
      • About Plant of the Year
      • Nomination Form
    • Capital Spending
    • State of the Profession
  • Industries
    • Aerospace
    • Appliance
    • Automotive
    • Medical Devices
    • DFMA Assembly
    • Green Manufacturing
    • Lean Manufacturing
    • Electronics Assembly
    • Machinery Assembly
  • Technologies
    • Adhesives
    • Assembly Presses
    • Automated Assembly
    • Dispensing
    • Motion Control
    • Screwdriving and Riveting
    • Plastics Assembly
    • Robotics
    • Test and Inspection
    • Welding
    • Wire Processing
    • Workstations
  • Columns
    • Assembly in Action
    • Automation Profiles
    • Medical Device Assembly
    • On Campus
    • Shipulski on Design
    • The Editorial
    • XYZ
    • Moser on Manufacturing
    • 21st Century Assembly
    • Mind Your Ps and Qs
  • New Products
  • More
    • Web Exclusives
    • Classifieds
    • eNewsletter
    • Blog
    • Market Research
    • Store
    • Product Spotlight
    • White Papers
    • Integrated Showcase
    • Custom Content & Marketing Solutions
    • Monthly Quiz
    • Sponsored Insight
  • Multimedia
    • Assembly Radio
    • Assembly TV
    • Image Galleries
    • Webinars
    • Interactive Spotlights
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • The Assembly Show
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
  • InfoCenters
    • Collaborative Robot Revolution
    • Factory of the Future
Home » Leading Lean: Know the Score and What to Do
Columns

Leading Lean: Know the Score and What to Do

September 29, 2008
Reprints
You can’t manage what you can’t understand. Measurement by itself adds no value.

Scoreboards have been as big a part of sports as measurements have been of business. But measurement by itself adds no value. A common but flawed concept is that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. It would be more accurate to say you can’t manage what you can’t understand. Measurement is nothing more than a tool to aid in understanding the current state. As Albert Einstein said: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

When I was a supervisor, before I earned the privilege of disrupting other supervisor’s lives, I endured a barrage of daily direction. This incessant direction-setting was based on fragmented information, flawed decision-making and misunderstood reactions, all derived from measurements but not from understanding.

This happens every day in organizations. An executive or manager asks a question about a safety issue and everyone immediately drops everything else to work on safety. Then a quality issue draws questions on the factory floor and the organization gets a short-term no-holds-barred focus on quality. One inquiry at a time based on some chart that’s a bit off kilter and the organization runs first to the cost side of the ship, then to the quality side of the ship, and soon the ship is just rocking with no direction at all.

When we create a model process of lean we start with a scoreboard, regardless of the specific process. It isn’t exciting but it is effective. A scoreboard is much more than measurements; measurements are just a tool. Writing measurements on some chart, hanging it up, and expecting everyone to divine what it means is not only insufficient, many people find it insulting.

The scoreboard itself is a process; it doesn’t just show measurements-it also shows everyone what needs to be done. Here’s how to make it so. First, your measurements must be balanced. Your scoreboard must present a balanced set of measurements-e.g., safety, quality, delivery and cost-as a whole. Balance prevents the organization from running amok without direction.

Second, your measurements must be predictive-this is the part that shows everyone what needs to be done. Most measurements are a look back, which is useful, but nowhere near as important as looking ahead. People shy away from predictive measurements because they are rarely comprehensive. But a partial look into the future is more useful than a comprehensive look into the past. Your purpose is to make decisions, and measurements that lead to action-instead of reaction-will produce more sustainable positive results.

Once you have a scoreboard you need a process for working with it. Lean leaders must not forget that people cannot be expected to start acting more productively and proactively just because they’ve put up a wall with numbers on it. So you need to develop a process that standardizes who will be involved in reviewing the measurements, what decisions they are expected to make, what actions they are expected to take, how frequently to meet and even for how long.

Remember to remind the team that you’re doing this to advance your progress along your lean journey! Whether you have 90-minute meetings on the third Friday of the month, 5-minute review meetings every morning, or follow some other schedule is not important. What is important is that you establish and follow a regular schedule to review the scoreboard, make decisions and take action for improvement.

Your scoreboard is your guide to generating understanding and agreement about the actions required for moving ahead in your lean journey. Measurements alone do not accomplish this.

Know the score, and you and your team will know what to do.

Jamie Flinchbaugh is a founder and partner of the Lean Learning Center in Novi, MI, and the co-author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road. He shares his successful and varied experiences of lean transformation as a practitioner and leader through companies such as Chrysler and DTE Energy. He also has a wide range of practical experience in industrial operations, including production, maintenance, material control, product development and manufacturing engineering. Jamie is a graduate fellow of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research thesis was on implementing lean manufacturing through factory design. He also holds a B.S. in Engineering from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, and an M.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan. To contact Jamie directly, go to the web site www.leanlearningcenter.com.

subscribe to assembly

Related Articles

Leading Lean: Do You Know Your Control Points?

Leading Lean: Lead Yourself to Lean

Leading Lean: Select the Right Champion

Leading Lean: Are YOU Leading Lean?

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • Assembly eNewsletters
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service
  • Mobile App

More Videos

Popular Stories

lordstown motors

Electric Truck Manufacturer Buys GM’s Lordstown Assembly Plant

Bobcat manufacturing

Bobcat Announces Manufacturing and Assembly Facility Upgrades

Wearable Device 11-27

Wearable Lets Users Control IoT-Enabled Devices With Brain Waves

Rayovac 11-20

Energizer Moving VT Battery Manufacturing Facility to Former Rayovac Plant

Breaking and Industry News

Airstream Manufacturing Expands With $50 Million Factory

Upcoming Assembly Events and Webinars

Events

January 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Cloud Computing

Are you using cloud computing at your assembly plant?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

Welding: Principles & Practices

Welding: Principles & Practices

This text introduces students to a solid background in the basic principles and practices of welding.

See More Products
assembly buyers guide

Assembly Magazine

assembly dec 2019

2019 December

The 2019 December Assembly features our Capital Spending Report, plus much more. Check it out today!
View More Create Account
  • More
    • Assembly Plant of the Year
    • Manufacturing Group
    • List Rental
    • Organizations
    • Connect
    • Want More?
    • Polls
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Survey And Sample

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing