1. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
Where & How to Start a
Solid Lean Transformation?
Neil (Nilakantasrinivasan)
In the current global downturn, high revenue growth is no more the flavor of the board
room or management committee meetings. Organizations are convinced that the days of
high octane growth are not going to return in the near term. Instead, board rooms are
bubbling with discussions on cost reduction that can help in sustaining the operating
income. However leaders are careful in choosing a systematic approach that will eliminate
wastes or unwanted cost elements rather than mere axing. They are cautiously
communicating this down the ranks so as not to be misconstrued as simple cost cutting
exercise. This is the context in which ‘Lean’, a traditional management approach used by
Japanese manufacturing companies to systematically eliminate waste is finding its way into
the board room agenda.
‘Lean’ has gone beyond manufacturing and has been successfully applied in variety of
services, government and non-profit scenarios. Financial services, telecom, IT, IT enabled

2. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
services, hospitality are few industries in services that have been successful with Lean
Transformation.
However, Lean goes beyond mere waste elimination or cost reduction. It aims to align the
organization & its resources to customers’ need, deliver high quality products/services
consistently, and as a result become the most preferred partner to the customer. It’s a
strategy to build customer loyalty.
If you are in this juncture of deciding on how and where to apply Lean in your organization,
you will certainly find my approach useful.
Lean methodology is prescriptive in nature. It starts with an introspection of current state,
usually through a site visit (Gemba walk-thro) by a lean expert. This is followed by a
download of prescriptive tools, techniques, ‘things-to-do’ to the senior leadership team
from the expert. This would include examples from competitors and other organizations
where lean tools have improved turnaround times, reduced defects, inventory and
increased profitability. This adrenaline shot is strong enough for senior management to
commit for lean transformation across the organization.
The most common approach used by organizations to deploy lean is to start with mega
launch followed by mass-awareness programs, recruitment of on-roll resources, internal
communication drives through banners, posters, videos, town halls, reward/recognition,
etc. This calls for upfront investment, but leaders are convinced and they don’t find it
difficult to garner the support from the CFO.
All this fun goes on for few months (or even years) till someone questions the ROI.
Unfortunately, once Lean deployment program has started across the organization without
deciding the key purpose, it’s very difficult to course correct or quantify the results. Due to
its prescriptive nature, several lean techniques become corporate rituals. So the program is

3. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
put on a ventilator only to keep the big bosses happy. And then one fine day, someone
pulls the plug!
So, it is best to deploy Lean to areas where it makes business sense. The cultural spill that
most experts sell doesn’t help if business doesn’t see value. I have seen cases of massive
corporate drive to deploy lean in areas where it wasn’t needed at all. Probably basic
discipline and process orientation like good housekeeping, clean desk and document
management policies would have been enough. ‘5S’, one of the most famous tools of lean
is adding cost on long run through frequent office or factory modifications rather than
eliminating wastes!
My recommendation is to stick to the following approach:
1. Identify financial measures that have consistently failed to meet expectations in the
past few business cycles (quarters, halves or FY)
2. Identify all ‘Lead’ business & process performance measures that have strong
impact on these financial measures. Create a ‘Metrics Value Tree’ by linking all
these measures together.
3. Conduct an analytical deep-dive on these measures to identify the baseline
performance, performance against target, gap with respect to internal and industry
benchmarks. Infuse the customer’s feedback (Voice of Customer) and complaints
data to get a full picture of the situation.
4. Use this information to involve the leadership team to identify 2-3 critical measures
that needs to be improved. Selection can be based on importance to financial
measures, customers, employees, environment and suppliers.
5. Initiate a Lean Proof-of-Concept (LPoC) phase that lasts for no more than 4-5
months. The primary deliverable of the LPoC is to successfully apply lean
transformation principles to see a lift in process & financial performance.
6. Use the lessons learnt from LPoC, company cultural aspects, existing improvement
practices, etc, decide a 12 month Lean transformation plan

4. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
In the LPoC phase, many organizations have improved measures such as Time to
Market, Opportunity to Order, Order to Delivery, Lead Conversion %, New product
Ramp-up Time, Defects reduction, Complaints reduction, Utilization %, etc.
The merits of this approach are straightforward:
 The saving accrued from the LPoC can be used to fund the next 12 month lean
transformation. Isn’t this a simple way to justify the ROI for a solid lean
transformation.
 As the leaders ripe the benefits of the LPoC projects, their acceptance to the
concept of Lean is much higher.
Three areas where organizations falter with this approach are:
 Identification of the scope and measure of success of the LPoC projects
 Unnecessarily divert energy towards training program
 Rely on amateurish skills of internal resources without practical lean expertise to
deliver results on LPoC projects.
About Neil
Neil started Canopus Business Management Group in 2009.
He helps a range of large enterprises in services and manufacturing, with particular emphasis on
execution of business & functional strategies, customer experience & process transformation. He
has worked with banking, outsourcing, IT, discrete manufacturing & telecom business processes. He draws on
extensive experience (15 years) in Hoshin Kanri, Blue Ocean Strategy, Lean, Six Sigma, Outsourcing, Change
Management and Touch point Management to deliver composite solutions that put client’s business in an
Advantageous & Profitable position.
Client engagements aim at eliminating the barriers for seamless execution of strategies, carpet bombing customer
touch points, diagnostic interventions on customer churn & retention and implementation of transformational
projects.
He can be reached at neil@collaborat.com or +91 9176616766.