Paul W. Critchley saw the power of lean as a plant manager at a growing medical device company. As the orders increased, every day the two-person shipping department struggled to make deadlines, getting in at 6:30 a.m. and rushing all day in order to make the UPS truck deadline at 5 p.m. Some days, the UPS driver would wait for them as they finished the last order. And then they’d go home, knowing they had to repeat the whole process the next day.
To address whether your business could benefit from enterprise lean, ask the following questions: