Assessing Lean Initiatives to Increase Productivity in Innovative Companies

Many entrepreneurs and managers in their daily tasks are experiencing decline in production and ultimately the bottom line of their organisation. What can be done to solve these impediments? The current paper answers to the above question. To achieve this, a thorough literature review was conducted on techniques related to productivity increase. They are among others, setting up performance dashboards; improving supervisor performance; and initiating continuous improvement by cleaning up and standardizing workspaces. These three lean initiatives are relatively easy and inexpensive to implement and can produce quick gains. They can also be a launching pad for more advanced or tailored productivity initiatives. In it first part, the paper discussed the setting up of dashboards. As Peter Drucker once observed, ‘What’s measured improves.’ That’s never truer than when the management want to improve their company’s operational efficiency. By continuously measuring the performance in key areas, the manager can evaluate how the company is doing compared to internal goals and external benchmarks, such as industry averages. A good way to introduce a measurement system is to focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) identified in the initial assessment. They must be tracked by creating performance dashboards. The second part of the paper analyses the step regarding the improvement of the supervisor performance. Supervisors are critical to the success of efficiency efforts. However, in many companies, there’s a gap between senior management’s goals and what’s happening on the front lines. To achieve the company goals, the company needs supervisors who can control the floor and maintain continuous improvement initiatives. It’s essential to empower supervisors to go beyond their regular duties and strive for improvement. A key issue is that many front line managers don’t spend enough time working to improve operations. Instead, they’re tied up with administrative tasks, meetings, employee training or even getting their hands dirty with production tasks. The third and final part of the paper discusses the process of standardized workspaces. A disorganized and untidy workplace is often a sign of an unproductive company, and an indication of deeper issues. One of the most basic efficiency exercises is to clean workspaces and standardize how they work using the 5S methodology developed by Toyota Motor Corporation. The process can boost morale, reduce mistakes and help employees find tools and documents more quickly. The result will be a more productive, safer and better-organized work environment