| Lean Manufacturing is all about re-orienting your thinking and realigning your resources and processes in a more customer-centric orientation. It's easy to educate yourself about Lean through resources available on the Web or at libraries. If you're just getting started on the Lean pathway, I'd suggest reading the two "seminal" works on the subject: The Machine That Changed the World and Lean Thinking by Daniel Roos, James Womack and Daniel Jones are great starting points. Jeffery Liker has more recently published books (e.g., The Toyota Way) that are equally informative. Lean projects don't require tremendous financial investment. But they do require tremendous commitment from senior management who are, themselves, well educated about Lean processes. Lean implementations require guidance and oversight -- on a daily basis -- by individual(s) who are experienced in Lean transformations. So the bigger investment is in people: hiring experienced Lean facilitiators or an experienced consultant to plan and oversee the project(s). Many of the important Lean projects (e.g., Value Mapping, The Five S's, Visual Controls, Standardized Work, Mistake Proofing) are not capital-intensive; but they are people-intensive. People in your organization require education and leadership to successfully manage a Lean transformation. Lean projects can only succeed with leadership from both experienced Lean transformation agents and a fully supportive, Lean-educated-and-committed management team. The only Lean projects that are likely to involve new IT investment fall around electronic kanban and level-scheduling implementation, and these are never the first elements of a Lean transformation. |