teamwork

Achieving lean structures and principles in a company means taking care that a cultural change takes place through all the parties everyone, including the leaders and employees, should be convinced that it is sensible, necessary and the correct thing to establish Lean. Lean should not be considered to be a foreign object in an environment where old habits persist. Cultural changes can be brought when thoughts about Lean are internalized by the people in the company, which become a part of the corporate philosophy. This article shows which measures the decision makers in management can take to develop Lean and make it an everyday practice.

For an efficient implementation of technical product changes, industrial companies need to use a goal-oriented procedure as well as an effective application of already existing knowledge about previous product changes. Mostly, product changes are implemented by using standardised workflows, which are controlled and documented by common workflow-management-systems. The administration effort of these systems often causes delayed implementation of product changes. In this context companies try to optimise the product change process by implementing new application systems and by integrating existing isolated applications in these systems. The organisation of subgroups, who finally implement the product change, is often neglected. Thereby, the development of new approaches in this area may close the gaps in order to make knowledge available.

The structuring of office work is of central importance in a modern knowledge society. The expectations on a knowledge worker are increasing constantly. Beside high productivity and best quality one expects flexibility, mobility and readiness for change. For mastering these challenges best work infrastructure is necessary - work places which optimally support the work itself and which offer positive ambience to the employees. Flexible office structures are fulfilling these requirements best. Their introduction requires in turn a goal-oriented change management.