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# Others Forget About People
- URL: https://www.kevinmeyer.com/others-forget-a/
- Published: 2008-05-09T04:27:00.000Z
- Updated: 2008-05-09T04:27:00.000Z
- Author: Kevin Meyer
- Tags: People & Culture, #Migrated-1752356847400, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-07-12 14:48

A few days ago [we told you again](http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2008/05/fujio-cho-remin.html?ref=kevinmeyer.com) about the importance of people to a lean manufacturing transformation. Now a few examples of how most consultants and organizations don't understand the second pillar of lean: respect for people.

First, an article on the success of [Merit Medical](http://www.onemedplace.com/blog/archives/663?ref=kevinmeyer.com).

> *Net income for the first quarter of 2008 improved 45% to $4.3 million. Quarterly sales grew 5% to $53.6 million. Catheter sales increased 11%, inflation device sales rose 7%, stand-alone device sales grew 6% while custom kit and tray sales remained flat.*  
>  
> *In 2007 Merit’s CEO, Fred Lampropoulos (pictured), implemented a program of lean manufacturing, automation, off-shore production and consolidation of the company’s Sensor Systems facilities.*  
>  
> *Gross margins for the first quarter of 2008 were 40.3% of sales, compared to 37.0% of sales for the first quarter of 2007\. The improvement demonstrates the increased productivity stemming from an 18% reduction in manufacturing headcount and cost savings initiatives.*

Successful, top and bottom line growth... and whacking a bunch of people while claiming to implement a lean manufacturing program along with off-shore production. Sorry... that's [LAME](http://www.leanblog.org/2007/03/lean-or-lame.html?ref=kevinmeyer.com).

Next, Carl Wright gives us a "[roadmap to lean implementation](http://www.reliableplant.com/article.asp?pagetitle=Lean%20manufacturing%20implementation:%20A%2020-step%20road%20map&articleid=11691&ref=kevinmeyer.com)." It's interesting, so I'll paste a chunk of it here.

1. *Form team (mix of lean manufacturing and relevant business experience)*
2. *Develop communication and feedback channel for everyone*
3. *Meet with everyone and explain the initiative*
4. *Begin to train all employees (lean overview, eight wastes, standard operations, kaizen, RCPS, PDCA)*
5. *Facility analysis – Determine the gap between current state and a state of “lean”*
6. *5-S - It is the foundation of lean. Workplace organization is critical for any lean initiative*
7. *TPM – Begin Total Productive Maintenance early (used throughout lean)*
8. *Value Stream Mapping – Determine the waste across the entire system*
9. *7 (or 8) waste identification – Use with value stream mapping to identify system waste*
10. *Process mapping – A more detailed map of each process*
11. *Takt time – Determine need to produce on all processes, equipment*
12. *Overall equipment effectiveness and six losses – Determine the losses on all processes and equipment*
13. *Line balance – Use, if necessary, with takt time and OEE*
14. *SMED – Push setup times down to reduce cycle time, batch quantity and lower costs*
15. *Pull / one-piece flow / Continuous Flow Analysis – Utilize kanban and supermarkets*
16. *Analyze quality at the source application – Poor quality stopped at the source*
17. *Implement error-proofing ideas*
18. *Cellular manufacturing/layout and flow improvement – Analyze facility and each process*
19. *Develop standardized operations – Concurrently with SMED, line balance, flow, layouts*
20. *Kaizen – Continue improving operations, giving priority to bottlenecks within the system*

Tools, tools, and more tools. Good stuff. Some human elements like Kaizen and training, but the respect for people pillar goes far deeper. Far, far deeper.

Remember the words of Fujio Cho.