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August 2025 #17313 Page #26
Lean Manufacturing Only Works with the Best Employee Management Practices Todd Drummond
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nyone with any training in lean practice has heard of standard terms such as the Five “S” and “Just in Time.” What is not discussed often enough is that lean principles are based on healthy management and employee relations, which is the foundation of the lean-manufacturing tenets. That’s right: to implement real and meaningful lean principles in a company, you need to communicate and trust each other (management and employees) to garner better results. As part of my consulting services, I discuss and teach best practices for healthy employee relations management. Without question, the companies with the most significant resistance to this one aspect of the lean training are those in greater need of change and embracing better management-employee relation practices. And just FYI, the best-performing companies have very low turnover and excellent employee management, leading to high performance, low errors, and higher quality. So, what can we describe in a short article to start the conversation about better communication and employee relations practices? Sometimes it is easier to explain something by showing what it is not.
Food for Thought Great minds discuss ideas: they focus on the root cause and its effects. Average minds discuss events: they focus only on the effects and do not understand why these effects have happened. Small minds discuss people: they shoot the messenger and blame people, which solves nothing. — Eleanor Roosevelt Be honest with yourself and think about how others react to what you are trying to achieve when you communicate with your boss or the people you supervise. Do you find yourself at a loss as to why people are not reacting favorably to what you are saying and doing? If you think you do not have room for improvement, you are likely blind to your actions. (Self-improvement is a lifelong endeavor.) So to help one understand the poor characteristics of both managers’ and employees’ communications, here are three huge red flags that are clear signs of trouble. 1. You tend to obsess over the past. Imagine a world where no one will forgive you for your intentional or unintentional mistakes. Imagine that, every time you speak with your boss about an idea, they always bring up some past mistake you made and are unwilling to discuss your new idea. Of course, you are telling yourself right now that this is simply a ridiculous and toxic environment to work in, and that you would soon look for another company. Now ask yourself: How willing are you to forgive others for their transgressions? Do you focus on the Continued next page
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