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Someone asked me this week for a definitive approach to Lean and to be honest it threw me. Obviously, there is the approach adopted by Toyota, and that suits them very well, but in terms of there being a definitive and fully agreed approach to Lean I could honestly say that there was none.

It led me to think about the different approaches adopted by organisations going Lean, from the highly analytical (lots of analysis and reports) to the highly practical (just Rapid Improvement Events) and it became apparent that the approach adopted by different organisations, whether management consultancies or Healthcare Organisations, was designed to suit their particular needs and capacity for change.

Whilst there should always be some basic 'ingredients' for an improvement programme (Scoping, Implementation, Risk Management etc) the detail is down to the organisation's experience and expertise at implementing improvements.

Some will opt for a 'pure Lean' approach (delivered by 'Sensei's' and driven by pushing) whilst others will opt for an integrated model, maybe drawing on expertise from the Theory of Contraints, Risk Management and Six Sigma......and whilst some approaches will suit some organisations I doubt one approach will suit all organisations!

What do you think?

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