3. How to get a successful start on the Lean journey?

This question was devided into two sub-questions: What are the main challenges to get started? And what are the key successfactors to overcome these challenges?

According to the expert respondents the challenges are:

While employee resistance and lack of commitment can be seen as the same thing it does not change the fact that Poor understanding of Lean is by far the biggest concern when getting started. The proposed success factors to address these issues where, in order of appearance:

1. Get executive management and key middle managers on board first
2. Train the organisation and develop an understanding of what Lean is and how it can improve your business
3. Start with a pilot to get a success story
4. Think long term, let it take some time

There were also some suggestions on how to get top and middle management on board, if they aren't from start. The most frequent suggestion is to train top management and to get help from outside by independent advisors, consultants or top managers from other companies that are already successfully implementing Lean.

Follow and contribute to the discussion on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Where-how-start-Lean-implementation-1816278.S.51030951?qid=0433442e-25cc-4227-b188-1cae9e6d5f9c&goback=%2Egmp_1816278
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/How-do-you-start-implement-123111.S.51958259?qid=5e3da490-65d2-4c84-8ac6-22c747599b3b&goback=%2Egmp_123111