In countries that are experiencing recession and companies are finding it difficult to make profit, several firms consider changing to lean manufacturing strategies. While considering this, they assess the alternative of implementing the change themselves or engaging the services of lean consultants, bearing in mind the technical and cost benefits of working with experts.
Why Do Firms Need To Adopt Lean Policies?
Several individuals equate lean principles with layoffs and reducing waste. Lean manufacturing strategies reduce waste by enhancing the methods and procedures. This, in turn, improves the end user or customer experiences. In addition, lean philosophies emphasize waste elimination by improvement leading to greater profitability. Apparently, this is what every company desires on the long term.
Why you require a lean consultant
Hypothetically, each firm can try to go lean without external assistance. Nevertheless, from a practical point of view, this can be a flawed tactic. Learning by going through a couple of training manuals as well as carrying out trail and error executions can be an extremely costly and time consuming process. Also, nobody can accurately predict whether the tactic will produce the needed outcome or not. A dependable lean consultant can assess, recommend, as well as produce results quicker and better for any company. What you should do is find a reliable lean consultant who has enough experience across a wide variety of industries to bring value and expertise to your firm.
The advantages of engaging the services of a lean consultant
1. Lean Consultants are Knowledgeable
A lean consultant possess the knowledge of 5C and 5S tools; also they know how, where, and when to use them. More experience across a wide variety of industries is a sure advantage because completing several such tasks in various fields will give them greater insight as well as a variety of solutions to tap from.
2. Independent
When compared to an in-house lean expert, an external consultant is an impartial expert who has no stakes within the firm. This helps him/her assess as well as implement policies with an independent tactic without paying attention to internal power struggles.
3. Proficiency
A lean consultant possesses the needed expertise to quickly understand your individual circumstance and processes. He/she can then design the finest solution based upon his implementation of the same solutions in other firms. Also, you can be certain that the pertinent experience will turn out to be beneficial in timely and efficient execution of the solution.
4. Acceptability
An external expert is treated with greater respect and obeisance, compared to an in-house individual. It is a lot simpler for him/her to train, facilitate and induce change in employees in addition to procedures working towards attainment of shared objectives.
5. Resourceful
A reliable lean consultant is backed by a team of experts or an association of consultants. In addition, he has links to other experts within the same field, as well as exposure to latest and finest practices. Apparently, he is better suited to deal with tasks than total novices.
A lean consultant can help your company to navigate through challenges and problems successfully. Nevertheless, you must select your lean consultant wisely. When hiring a lean adviser, choose one who will patiently guide you through the processes and systems in detail.
Aside from interacting regularly with the top management of the organization, a lean consultant should interact with workers at every level. Training as well as engaging with workers is an extremely essential step in lean implementation. If carried out properly, your lean expert can direct your workers to better utilize their hidden talents as well as modernize their skills also.
Furthermore, a reliable lean consultant must have a thorough understanding of your customers and suppliers. All of these individuals or companies should be working closely with you to deliver the final goods/services to your customers with better value.
There’s doubt that a dependable lean consultant will aid you gain competitive advantage as well as teach you how to retain that advantage over the long term. What this means is that reliable lean consultants should be capable of adapting lean manufacturing strategies to suit your particular requirements because each company is unique. A reliable candidate must be capable of supporting you during the implementation stage as well as be there to assist you whenever you need help in the future.
In summary, it may seem costly to hire a lean consultant; however this is actually an excellent investment for any firm considering adopting lean strategies due to the array of services that lean consultants offer. Hiring these experts is a wise decision over the long term.
