If you apply lean to a system or process that is no longer relevant, you aren't really improving anything. So warns Greg Fields, president of Bridgewright Management Consultants.
"To those that survived 2010, congratulations -- you are here to stay," says Fields. "Manufacturers that were able to look higher up the food chain and move their value stream to the enterprise level by being more innovative and offering new products, are left standing in 2010. But what they understand is that the game has changed."
The battle is over, but the economy is still bad, explains Fields. "No amount of continuous improvement will get companies where they need to be if they are busy tweaking systems that were designed and developed for a different environment."
