Lean Manufacturing: Preparing Employees for The Organizational Change

Any multi-department organization such as companies find it hard to adjust to any organizational change or any program that involves any form of behavioral intervention. This behavior of skepticism, distrust and resistance to adapt to new methods is collective and finds its roots in individual units and, ultimately, to individual employees. Changes in established work procedures and job routines usually cause tension between management and employees. These tensions more often than not, result to great company loss and puts the entire organization at a disadvantage to the neighboring competition.

When a company or an organization is planning to go into and adopt lean manufacturing, necessary preparations have to be made in order to maximize the full benefits of lean manufacturing.

Organizational Group Intervention

Organizational group intervention is necessary to every department that is undergoing the process of adopting Lean Manufacturing. Organizational Group intervention may include seminars, forums and technical support especially for the manufacturing or production department since this is the department mostly affected by lean manufacturing methods. Employees in the production or manufacturing department may experience deep demoralization when adopting new lean manufacturing methods and techniques. Thus, it is important that they be informed of their role in the entire organization despite the adoption of new manufacturing methods. Group intervention may also come in the form of group counseling, channeling and leveling of issues and questions between management and subordinates or lower-hierarchy employees. This establishes a stronger partnership relationship between the two, bridges the dividing gap and allows for continues interchange or flow of communication and ideas, and relieves tensions.

Albeit Lean Manufacturing is a tool that cuts costs and delivers to customers and consumers the exact value of goods which they are willing to pay for, lean manufacturing will remain an unapplied principle that is useless without people to implement it, support it, and sustain it. Lean manufacturing does not necessarily rid employees of their jobs. Lean manufacturing simply means lessening the work load of these employees involve and utilizing and maximizing their time with other value-oriented tasks that consumers are willing to directly pay for.

JB Anthony is the webmaster of http://www.leanmanufacting.hottestniches.com. For more information, articles, reviews, and links on Lean Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing Processes, Principles of Lean Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing Procedures, Lean Manufacturing companies, please visit the website, http://www.leanmanufacting.hottestniches.com.

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