What Does “Go Lean” Mean?
May 28th, 2007 by HalOpinions…everyone has one…including me. Industry Week quoted Marshall Fisher, a Wharton School professor on When Not to Go Lean, by David Blanchard. The professor said you might be better off carrying excess inventories based on the nature of your product and the marketplace. Specifically, he spoke about supply and demand mismatches indicating that running out of a high margin item in a fashion market would result in lost profits for good. I wonder how he would reconcile that with Zara. This fashion clothing company intentionally runs out. And then they replace it with the next fashion item. They do that in very short design and production cycles. I wonder how the good professor would explain that?
I think the issue starts with what does it mean "to go lean"? In the world of finance (Wharton?) going lean might mean to strip away the inventory. It might also mean to strip away people, capital assets, and even lines of business. Perhaps Professor Fisher will let us know. But in the world of lean companies, going lean doesn't make much sense. Lean is a way of being rather than what we do. It has more to do with the perspective one brings towards the business than any one product decision. Read Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way to get a better sense of lean. But in the meantime remember this:
Invest in the growing capability of your workforce to bring ever-increasing value to your customers and your firm.
That's lean. With that definition, you can pursue lean in all business and project endeavors without a concern for choosing the wrong path.
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