While that was a big change, it was no bigger a change than a new ERP system, introducing a new machine or process that must be learned, or a new product that requires different skills to build.

All of those changes require that at least some of the people learn new skills or do things in a different way. In all of those cases, there is the possibility that some of the people are going to be uncomfortable enough that, for whatever reason, their continued employment isn’t viable. At some point someone has to make that decision, whether the employee or the management. In a very small shop such as this, one which cannot afford to have even a couple of people not in the game, that decision is likely sooner than later.

Mr. Goethals made the comment, “We had to replace some operators who didn’t like the idea of the ‘flow’ of their work to be visible. We ended up replacing almost 1/3 of the workforce because they didn’t want to leave the idea of batch production. This was very hard to do, letting people go is always difficult. But for us this was the only way.”

What are your thoughts and your readers thoughts on this approach to implimenting lean manufacturing? Since people sometimes don’t change fast is this the right thing to do for the business? Were there different approaches to change and change management that Mr. Goethals should have tried?

If I remember right a certain senior executive that we both know had about the same thing happen at a company he started lean at. Does your lean journey always get to this decision point?

Duke