Comments on: Is Laying People off Really Anti-Lean?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:07:06 +0000

… and what better illustration of this article than now. The automotive world for certain is in turmoil. Some manufacturers have made ‘drastic’ cuts already, and more are to come. Meritocracy and performance related pay are ideas… but the unionized workforce has the above question very much on their minds. Hang on, it’s going to be a heck of a ride.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:08:38 +0000

It’s simple really; you have to follow and implement the guiding business principles and match the right number of people to get the jobs done. You can explain to the remaining folks that it is the company’s mantra to ‘take better care of fewer people’. Then, go about doing so. Reward the remaining employees for high levels of performance; ie based on a set ROA figure or some other measureable outcome.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:25:47 +0000

I truly believe that the core of Lean is the respect for people and partners. Use technology to support people, not to replace them!

By: Russell

Russell — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:12:43 +0000

The key to this is previous management did not make effective business decisions, Board fired him or her. The Lean process identified the mis management with solid data to drive smart business decisions. I have been in this situation and it was a painful experience but the people who eventually lost there jobs understood it was previous poor management decisions that drove the down sizing not the Lean methodology.

By: John Asher

John Asher — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:04:56 +0000

Great post, and certainly a tough decision. However, Lean manufacturing, six sigma, or any other continuous improvement initiative should build morale and empower employees to grow the business.
If the business was in poor shape, transformation experts should be brought in first under that name to “rightsize” the company first, then improve it further with lean and six sigma and put those extra few people into improvement teams until the business can utilize them directly. Actually this is a good training ground for workers.
The post is thought provoking, but laying off people as a result of any improvement initiative is not good. There are times when it must be done, but it is normally management that implemented lean prior to doing what they should have done all along.
Chances are, if this management couldn’t rightsize the company before lean, then the lean probably wouldn’t be successful enough to have that decision.

By: Ninjas

Ninjas — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:28:12 +0000

I worked at a company that institutef ” Lean” for the specific purpose of increasing stockholder capital productivity as much as possible.

This means their ideal company has one employee.

Attrition has been very high after layoffs.

I have never seen morale lower anywhere else.

By: lokimikoj

lokimikoj — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:49:15 +0000

Hello

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By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:18:04 +0000

hi nice post, i enjoyed it

By: Say it ain't so! Toyota lay people off?

Say it ain't so! Toyota lay people off? — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:09:38 +0000

[...] lean gets carried away from time to time. I blogged about this before when we discussed whether laying people off was really anti-lean. Now, as I explained after posting that article laying people off as a result of “lean [...]

By: An article about cabinet maker applying lean manufacturing

An article about cabinet maker applying lean manufacturing — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:33:56 +0000

[...] The “not necessarily people” bit may worry some folks as we discussed in “Is laying people off really anti-lean?“ [...]